


Harebells

by Leikar



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, Colony AU, Family, Hurt/Comfort, I hope you like it!, I'm going to call it..., M/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trans My Unit | Reflet | Robin, because i'm bad at this, i finally managed to write something about this little AU i thought of a while ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-09-28 15:22:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17185505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leikar/pseuds/Leikar
Summary: "Because a world that made me kill you doesn't deserve to exist!"He couldn't stand it anymore.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A new story!
> 
> I wanted to write a fic about a little AU I made a while ago, but all my attempts to write it made the plot go nowhere. It turned out that the Heroes setting was much better than Awakening and the story sprouted almost by itself the moment I changed it. The story is fully writen already, and I'll try to upload once per week. 
> 
> I'm very excited about it and I hope you'll like it!

When Chrom opened his eyes, he found himself standing next to his horse in front of three unknown people. The one on the left was a blonde woman with a golden armor holding a lance and a golden shield. The one on the right was Anna, but experience told Chrom she probably wasn't the same Anna he had known: she didn't wield axes. And, in the middle, stood what appeared to be a young man wearing white and golden robes and holding a strange weapon.  


"Isn't that Chrom?" The blonde woman said. "But he looks older…"  


"He's probably from a later point in time, like Hector and Ike." Anna guessed.  


The man in the white robes nodded in agreement, put away the strange weapon they were holding and smiled at Chrom.  


"Greetings! I'm sure you are confused about suddenly appearing here. The short version is that you are in Askr because I have the power to summon heroes from other realms, and we'd like to ask for your help us win a war." They made a short pause, as if letting Chrom process everything they were saying.  


"You are not obligated to help, and you don't have to answer right now." The blonde woman assured him. "But we'd really appreciate if you could lend us a hand. I'm Sharena, by the way."  


"I'm Kiran and she's Anna. But perhaps you already knew of her; it looks like many heroes have seen her endless sisters."  


"We're not endless!" Anna protested, but the summoner ignored her. After coming to Aksr and starting summoning heroes, they were at least half sure the Annas were just multiverse versions of the same person.  


The summoner turned to Sharena. "I should give Alphonse a report on the summon, but this took a lot from me." Their composure seemed to waver a bit for a second, showing how tired they were. "Could you do that for me? I think I'll take a nap before lunch."  


"Of course! Anna, I know you are busy right know, but could you bring Chrom to an empty room in the Awakening wing? I'll send someone later to show him the castle."  


Anna looked like she was going to protest, but changed her mind when she knew she didn't have to waste her time giving a rookie tour throught the place.  


"Sure!" She looked at Chrom, who seemed to be trying to process everything he was hearing. "Well, big guy. Follow me; I'll take you to a place where you can rest and think in peace."  


"I'll take the horse to the stables." Sharena got closer to it with a smile and softly touched the neck. The horse snorted when it saw her aproach, but let her pet its neck.  


Chrom gave her the reins. They all seemed friendly enough, and hadn't tried to take his sword away. It didn't look like they would hurt the animal, and he would be grateful for having a place to think about everything that was happening.  


"Lead the way." He nodded to Anna.  


The three of them left the garden with the stone.

 

* * *

So far, Chrom didn't have anything against helping them. War at Ylisse had finished several years ago, and everything home should be fine. He was worried about having left withouth saying anything to anyone there, and wanted to ask Kiran if there was a way to send a letter to his world. The summoner had said that they needed help. He didn't want to just leave.  


He raised his head, frowning, when he heard a knock on the door. He knew they would send someone to teach him about the place, but he had expected a little bit more time to think. He quickly glanced at the Falchion, which he had put resting on the side of the bare wall ten minutes ago. That room didn't have much more than a bed, a desk and a chair, so the heroes could put in it anything they wanted. That was what Anna had said, anyway.  


He got up and walked to the door, grabbing the handle and pulling. At least, he should see who was there. And once the crack opened enough he realized he was staring at...  


"Lissa?!"  


"Hi, Chrom!" She happily chirped, and threw herself into a hug. Chrom awkwardly hugged her back, not expecting her reaction.  


"What are you doing here?"  


"The same thing as you! Helping the Askrians win this war. You will help us, right?"  


Chrom nodded. If he wasn't sure before, knowing his sister was here was convincing enough.  


"And I supose you are the guide Sharena mentioned?"  


"Yes! There are many places to show you, so let's go right now or we'll be late for lunch!"  


"By you're excitement I'll assume it's not bear meat."  


Lissa stick her tongue out. "No, we are civillised people here!"  


Chrom chuckled and followed her out of the room. They started walking throught the halway.

 

* * *

"So, let me see if I understood this."  


Lissa stopped and stared at her brother, already expecting the confused and slightly anxious look he had on his face. They were in a small rose garden that was close to the stables, since Chrom had wanted to check on his horse.  


"So our rooms are divided by the realm we came from, and there are several other Shepherds here too."  


He waited for Lissa to confirm that. She did.  


"And since there are multiple realms, it's also possible… to find other versions of ourselves?"  


She nodded again.  


"And there is _another Chrom_."  


That wasn't a question, but Lissa confirmed it anyway. "He's been here for a while, actually. We both arrived almost at the same time. I wanted to tell you before you found him today at lunch…"  


It was definitely going to be awkard.  


"And does he know about… um… me?"  


"Well… not exactly. But he does know about the posibility of having another 'him' walking around the castle, so it won't be as shocking for him as it will be for you." Lissa looked pensive for a few moments. "It looks like Kiran can't summon someone endlessly, so there won't be a hundred Chroms going around. There has to be some significant difference about each 'version'. That's how Kiran thinks it works."  


"And how am I different from him?"  


"You're older, more mature and on a horse!"  


She was silent for a while, Chrom still waiting for her to say something else. Lissa sighted.  


"Ok, there's a non-spoken rule among everyone living in the Awakening wing. We don't talk about the specifics of the worlds we came from, so I can't tell you much more about it. You're just… different enough from him, I guess."  


"Why not? Were there problems?" Chrom raised an eyebrow in surprise.  


"No, but… It got awkward fast." She frowned. "So, maybe all Shepherds are part of the same realm, but it doesn't mean we all come from the same world. And some things are different. For example, Cherche. Do you know that she'll have a son?"  


Chrom nodded. "Yes, Gerome. Is he here too?"  


"Yes. And do you know who his father is?"  


The Exalt blinked in confusion. "Of course. Why would I not?"

 

Lissa pressed her lips, thinking of the best way to explain this. "Because he's not the Gerome from _your_ realm. Both Cherche and Gerome are here, but they are not the Cherche and Gerome from the same realm. So Cherche married someone, and Gerome has a father… but that person is not the same one for both. And it's probably not the same in the realm you came from."

"I see…"  


Yeah, that sounded like a mess.  


"And it's not just the children. Like, I'm Lissa and I'm your sister, but I don't come from your realm so I'm not _your_ sister. No one is from the same realm because the probability of that happening is very low." Lissa got quiet suddenly and look away. "Well, almost anyone."  


But she recovered faster that he could ask about it.  


"So! We tend to focus on the big picture and avoid details. Which means we're all the Shepherds and you're always my bro!" She gave him a huge smile.  


Chrom chuckled at her declaration. "Sounds good to me."

 

"Then let's go to the stables instead of wasting time here. I still can't believe you've actually learned to fight on a horse. How were you convinced?"  


Chrom sighted and pinched the bridge of the nose, closing his eyes.  


"It's a long story…"  


* * *

The tour through the castle ended up being longer that Lissa had calculated. When they arrived to the dining room, most people were sitting there already. His sister told him most heroes from the same world usually ate together, because they already knew each other. But after enough time battling teams could end up sharing meals some days instead of doing it with their usual group. The divisions weren't a norm as much as a suggestions so they would feel more comfortable in that strange world they were living in now.

 

Chrom was surprised at the warm welcome everyone on the table gave him. It seemed that word about his summoning had spread around most heroes. He was even getting curious glances from other tables as well. He realized a bit better why talking about the specifics of each realm would be a mess even it wasn't about the children. The Shepherds, except Frederick, looked like they lacked the experience the Exalt had. They looked like they hadn't finished the conflict in their realm. The other Chrom didn't look as mature, and was definitely younger. And perhaps felt a bit intimidated and nervous at being in front of an older and more experienced version of himself. Maybe he had just started the conflict with Plegia? That was the impression the Exalt got. And then Donnel looked like he had been using that spear of his for only a couple of days, instead of being the confident and strong warrior he had become in Chrom's realm.

 

And, of course, Robin was there, writing something on a sheet of paper while waving him as a greeting without leaving his attention from the report. And next to him, there was Robin, playing with her long hear while looking at the paper and waving Chrom as a greeting. The Exalt blinked, realizing he wasn't seeing double, only two different versions of the same person.  


"Welcome to Askr." The female Robin said, guessing what he was thinking. The other Robin chuckled when he heard that, and raised his head to smile at Chrom.  


"Thanks." Chrom answered them, resisting the urge to sigh. He sit on a free chair, between Stahl and Gaius.

 

"They love doing that with everyone." Lissa whispered to him.

 

She didn't have to say it. Chrom could see them snickering while staring at them. Well, if they wanted to mess with him he could mess with them as well. In his world, Robin had never been with someone else that made as much tactical planning as him, so…

 

"I'm glad there's two of you. That way Kiran can have a good tactitian at their side." He said, with feigned innocence.  


"Yes, I'm a master tactician! Unlike him." Robin smiled with a smug.  


The male Robin grunted and glared daggers at her. " _Excuse me?!_ "  


"You are excused for losing at chess agains me four times in a row."  


"You lost half of your pieces the four times! I call that mass suicide, not strategy!" He replied. "You're too aggresive!"  


"And you're too defensive! You won't get anywhere like that!"  


Their discussion was suddenly interrupted by a couple of figures with dark hair jumping on them an grabbing them by the neck. The boy wore robes similar to the Robin's, while the girl had the uniform of a pegasus knight.  


"Are you arguing again?" The boy said.  


"Gerome is bringing the food. Stop already!" The girl admonished them.

 

The Robins grunted as an answer, but stopped their bickering. The boy and the girl let him go, and noticed the (not-so) new face at the table.  


"Oh, Chrom! Welcome to Askr!" The girl said.  


Because of course that if there were two Robins, there had to be two Morgans.

* * *

"You've actually arrived at a good time to take things easy." Robin stopped talking a few seconds to grab his mug an finish it. "We've just finished the conflict with Múspell, so, except for a few skirmishes an scouting missions here and there, there's not much going on."

 

His female counterpart nodded. "When we were summoned, we had to fight practically the next day." She frowned. "But it turned out that several other heroes were better than us, so now we usually plan with Kiran and the other strategists. And fight small skirmishes we find scouting."  


"Oh…" Chrom didn't know what to say.  


The Robin of his realm had been one of the strongest people of the Shepherds. How strong were the heroes summoned there if both of them weren't part of the top at all? He suddenly wondered if he should even be there.  


"Don't put that face! If we're here is because we're needed!" Morgan said, smiling at him encourangingly.  


It was still strange for Chrom to not find the Brand of the Exalt on her eye, which kept reminding him she came from a realm in which she wasn't his daughter. It was the other Morgan, instead, the one who had a bluish sheen on his hair…  


"We still need to protect the castle." The male one said. "And keep it running without its prince and princess while they're away in missions. It's harder than it looks like."  


More than an hour and half had passed since lunch at the canteen had began to be served, and the majority of heroes had finished and left to train or take care of other duties. Chrom's table had become completely empty, save for the Morgans and the Robins. Most other tables were empty as well, and a couple of heroes that looked like servants were cleaning them.  


That was why it was so strange for Chrom to see the door to the canteen opening, and a person entering the place. Chrom couldn't hide his surprise at seeing yet another Robin in Askr, specially because he couldn't see any stricking difference between him and the one siting across the table.  


The Robin glanced at him and looked away again so fast Chrom thought he had imagined it. He kept walking straight for the table at the end of the room in which the Askrian's were discussing something after eating. He completely ignored the one for the Shepherds without saying a single word. The moment he sat at the end of the table, the summoner got closer to him and started making small talk. Or trying, because that Robin kept gruting as an answer and ignoring most of their babble.  


Chrom frowned, puzzled by that strange behaviour, and turned his head to ask the other Robins about it, only to find they had become silent and were avoiding his gaze. The Morgans looked at their parents with worry as well. Chrom wanted to ask about it, but realized he had to be careful about it. They all fell into an uncomfortable silence.  


It was then when the door to the room opened yet again, and a young figure crossed it into the place. They wore a blue attire and a butterfly mask Chrom would recognize anywhere. But when Lucina got closer to the table and shot a look at them, she looked away and started walking away even faster. She stopped only when she got at the furthest table, and sat away from both the summoner and the Robin.  


The people at Chrom's table kept silent and tense. Chrom closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "I can see this is something you don't want to talk about, but I need to know why Lucina and that Robin acted so—"  


"He's not us." The male Robin snapped. He was still looking away from Chrom, his expression tense, and one of his hands was strongly grabbing the other one. The hand that had that purple brand, Chrom noticed. He stared at it, realizing something. No, it couldn't be… "He's Grima."  


The confirmation felt like a slap on the face. Chrom could feel the blood draining from his face. "What?! _How?!_ "  


"Breidablik doesn't care about that." Morgan muttered, her voice still high enough to be heard. "It just helps Kiran summon whatever we could need to win the war on Askr."  


"Yeah, the summoner can't really control who they are going to bring." The female Robin added, fidgeting with her fork. "And, in any case, everyone here is under the same contract the moment they appear. It's not like he can kill anyone here anyway."  


"But he could still attack." Chrom guessed.  


"Well, we do need to train, and that's hard without hitting each other." The male Robin said, releasing his hand and trying to look at Chrom at the face. "There had to be a limit to how much we can't damage each other."

 

"But he hasn't done anything." The male Morgan added, with a serious look on his face. "At all. He barely interacts with anyone besides the summoner, and only because they try to talk to him. He hasn't done or even said anything to anyone. He's ignoring our presence."

 

Chrom raised his eyebrows when he heard that information. It sounded like nothing he would expect from the dragon that almost destroyed his world. He looked at the Robins, waiting for something else they could say, but they nodded at him, confirming what Morgan had just claimed.

 

The Exalt was at a loss for words, unable to say anything after hearing such absurd information. The female Robin decided it was a good moment to answer him the other part of the question.  


"And if you want to know about Marth, you should probably ask Kiran about it. It's… complicated."  


Chrom didn't miss the frown that appeared in the Morgan's faces.


	2. Chapter 2

Alphonse and Kiran stared in silence at the recently summoned figure in front of them. The person in question stared back with a cautious expression. It seemed like he was esentially Robin, but…

"Another Robin?" Alphonse whispered to Kiran. "But he doesn't look any different… You shouldn't have been able to summon him, should you?"

The summoner shrugged, leaning heavily on Alphonse. The summon had been exhausting, much more than the one in which the first Robin had appeared, or even the second. Kiran looked like he was struggling to keep his consciousness. That meant that this Robin was far stronger than the other two, but…

Grima stopped paying atention to them to look around him instead. He had no idea where he was supposed to be, but that definetely wasn't the ravaged world he had been until seconds ago. The sky was too blue, the grass tas too green and there was an important lack of death around. He was going to demand answers when he noticed the third person present. They wore blue clothes matching their blue hair, and a blue mask to hide their features. The Falchion hanging at their hip was unmistakable. Exactly the same one Chrom had used once; that only his bloodline could use.  

Grima hadn't seen her in months, due to the devastation, ruins and mayhem. He hadn't even known if she was still alive. If there was anyone of them alive at all. It didn't matter; why would it? Thinking of them was an annoyance in his way to revenge. The world would burn to the ground, and pay for what had happened. Grima would made sure of that.

Still, it was so unexpected, to suddenly find himself in a different world with different people, and yet, the same time and place as _her_ , his mouth pronounced the first words his brain managed to provide.

"You're still wearing that tiara I gave you?" His voice sounded confused. It looked like the first thing you would lose after things got out of control.

The change in Lucina was instantaneous, her body tensing like a stringbow. Grima realized his mistake, and his expression was quickly replaced by a disturbing smile, while he glared and laught at her, his body starting to emanate small puffs of purple smoke.

"What, worm? Did you think I was someone you'd recognize? I do not believe so, for there is nothing to survive the destruction I, the Fell Dragon, bring upon the world."

While Alphonse knew about the heroes, he wasn't as knowleadgeable as the summoner, who studied everything they could to try to make the summons more accurate. So he didn't know exactly how terrible those words were until he felt Kiran strongly grabbing his clothes annd gasping in surprise, eyes wide. He looked at Marth, next to them. She had started to visibly shake, and seemed unable to tear her eyes from Grima.

She suddenly drew his sword and, with a yell, attacked Grima. The Fell Dragon did not expect it, and stepped back, trying to get away from her. He found himself cornered against the summon stone. He didn't have time to think his next move before the Falchion made a cut on his arm. He yelled, suffering an incredible pain he hadn't experienced before. Grima growled at Marth and tried to get away from the stone to avoid that blade, only to find she was already running away towards the castle that stood not far from them.

"Marth, wait!" Alphonse yelled at her. She didn't.

Grima grabbed his arm, hissing at the sharp pain he was feeling. Most blades could barely touch him, so he didn't expect getting such a painfull cut from it. Of course, it was _his_ sword. Grima should have expected the Falchion to be different from other blades.

"Grima." The summoner said then. Grima stared at them, still with a pained expression. Kiran sounded wary. "That's who you are, aren't you?"

Grima frowned, not liking how they had said that. "And why should I answer to you, worm?" He replied.

Kiran tried to stand in a steadier pose, with Alphonse's help. He didn't want to act so weak in front of someone as dangerous as him. Things could get bad. "Very well. I don't know why Brediablick summoned you, but since you are here and you won't be able to leave in a while, I'll explain two things. One, you have been summoned to another world to aid us in our war. And two, because of that, you are bounded by a contract that will prevent you from killing other heroes summoned and also us, so don't do anything stupid. We don't want unnecessary trouble, understood?"

Who did that human think they were? Grima gave him a smug smile. "And what if I do cause trouble, worm?"

"There are another four Falchion users here, and at least one of them would be very gladly to use it on you."

Grima's smile dropped, and he glowered at Kiran. The summoner ignored him and nodded at Alphonse. He looked cautiously at Grima as well.

"We'll get you to a room where you can rest. Follow us."

Grima glared daggers at them, but ended up following them. One clash with a Falchion was enough.

* * *

Marth's hurried steps could be heard along the hallway, but mercifully it seemed that no one else was around, since no door opened to see what was the trouble. She found the door to her room, entered, and locked it behind her. She let her sword and mask fall to the ground before throwing herself onto the bed and starting to cry, desperately tring to muffle the sounds with her pillow.

That hero was… he was… It couldn't be, that was no hero at all! Just a monster that had destroyed everything she new!

But… his words… what he had said…

_You're still wearing that tiara I gave you?_

Her father had been a great tactician, someone who had tought her to think critically and patiently before acting. To notice details and analize them. To realize when people were lying, when people were were tying to hide something.

His eyes had grown wide in recognition, in surprise. But then his demeanor had changed completely, and he had acted smugly around her while staring at her eyes. As if he had realized he had momentarily slipped. As if he had forgotten about his façade.

_You're still wearing that tiara I gave you?_

And that meant… That meant…!

The conclusion was hopeful, shocking and horrifying, all at once. Marth didn't want to think about it.

* * *

Marth breathed deeply and opened the door. The dining room was bursting with activity, with many heroes eating, talking and laughing all at once. The first thing she did was stare at the final table. Grima wasn't present there. Then she looked at the Shepherds table, with fear raising inside her, but he wasn't there either. She mentally scolded herself. Why would he be with the Shepherds? It was absurd. He had obviously not gone there at lunchtime.

Still, the Fell Dragon's absence didn't decrease her anxiety.

She  walked towards her usual table and sat at the end, next to Frederick, who greeted her with a soft smile and a nod of the head. A couple of Shepherds looked at her, wondering about her lateness, but said nothing. Frederick started serving her food while Sully kept talking about the training she had done that morning. Marth zooned out unconsciously.

"Marth? Are you listening?"

She looked up, startled. Everyone at the table was staring at her with a worried look. They all had finished their meals, but she had barely touched hers. The male Robin was staring at her. A Robin that, apparently, was already engaged. But Marth had only to cautiously observe how he acted around her to know he clearly wasn't going to become her father.

"Are you ok? Did something happen at the summon this morning? We haven't seen the new hero yet." He didn't mention she was wearing the mask again, which only happened whenever she had bad days, but his words implied the question.

His worry only made things worse. It made her wish for something she had lost and would never recover. It made her realize perhaps wishing for it had been a mistake.

She cleared her throat, trying to recompose her surely broken voice. "The summoning took a lot from Kiran. They succeded, but almost fainted."

Her words were monotonal and plane, and she was staring at the food in front of her; but thankfully the mask hid that.

"Wow, really?" The female Morgan said. "They must be very strong. Who are they?"

_Her father rhelped her solve a problem from a difficult tactic book. Her father stood in front of her with corpses lying around his feet._

Marth wanted to yell. She realized her hands had started shaking and her eyes were filling with tears.

She ran away from the dining hall.

* * *

Chrom climbed the stairs to the last floor of the wing.

The Shepherds had been looking for Lucina, but they had been unable to find her. It wasn't surprising, given how she spent most of her time at the castle and knew of its secret passages and hiding corners better than any other hero, and almost as well as the summoner and the Askrians themselves. The other Lucina and both Morgans had eventually asked them to leave her alone for a while. Marth had come straight from a ravaged world, unlike the rest of the time travelers, who had already saved their world or were just about to in most cases. Seeing everyone suddenly alive and well in a beautiful and mostly peaceful world had been a shock for her; and she had trouble adjusting.

Still, it was unusual to see her reacting in such a strong way, and Chrom was worried. He still wasn't used to have _two_ almost identical daughters already almost as old as him when he hadn't even been father in his own world yet, but he tried to help them whenever he could. And if Marth hadn't been able to tell them what had happened, perhaps the summoner could shed some light on the matter.

Chrom reached the upper floor of the Archalentia wing, where the Askrians and heroes who happen to clash a lot with others lived. There was just a dozen and half rooms there, and not even half of them were being used at the moment. Two of them had been temporarily used by some people… Takumi and Celica, were they? Chrom wasn't sure of their names, but there had been some kind of trouble with them and the summoner had made them live with the Askrians to avoid trouble.

Chrom saw Robin at the window of the side of the wall, staring through it to the training grounds below. The window was open and he was showing his back. Chrom had believed he had gone with the othe Robin to train, but apparently he had been wrong. The prince smiled and got closer to him.

"You know, I don't think watching other people train counts as your own training."

Robin turned his head towards him in an instant. His eyes were wide, his lips were pressed and he was staring at Chrom with an instensity that made him stop walking. It was the most shocked and painfull expression he had ever seen him made. Robin's face an instant later, becoming indifferent and almost bored. But his eyes darted fast from the wall next to Chrom to the window to the right and then to the hallway surrounded by rooms, as if he was planning an escape route.

Robin stared at him warily, shooting a particularly fast glance at the Falchion. It was as if he was seriously considering him a threat. Chrom grew worried and bewildered. First Lucina at lunch and now Robin several hours later, both were acting strange.

Robin's expression changed again, and he smiled smugly at him. "I'm not your little tactician, worm."

While Chrom himself hadn't lived thought everything that would happen in his world, the Shepherds came from different parts in the timeline. Grima's story and it's conection to the tacticians was known, if generally avoided for being un uncomfortable topic. Chrom realized that wasn't Robin, and drew his word. Grima frowned when he saw it, but said nothing.

"How can you be here?!"

"The same as all of you." Grima answered, simply. "I was summoned to fight in whatever war is happening in this world."

"Like hell you are! You're just a monster that will destroy everything and take away my best friend."

Grima started laughing when he heard that. It sounded almost hysterical.

"Then you'll be happy to know I'm bounded by a contract like all of you and can't do much." His expression became bored in an instant. "Now, leave. I'm not in the mood to play with you."

"Do you really think I'll just let a monster like you go?!"

"Nothing you do here will have any effect in the realm I came from. Throw your rage at something else, Exalt." Grima replied, completely uninterested in fighting him.

Chrom became furious, having being reminded of the sister that would die regardless of whatever he tried to do to save her. He jumped at him, attacking with his sword. Grima tried to step back, realizing he should have kept his mouth shut, but the blade never touched him. It was stopped by another sword.

Marth entered thought the window, Falchion in hand, and hit her father's strongly, stopping it from reaching the man with robes behind her. She stood firmly between them, giving her back to Grima and confronting Chrom. The prince couldn't believe it.

"Lucina?! What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm the messenger and peacekeeper of the castle." Marth replied in a deeper voice than usual, still wearing that mask. "It is my duty to make sure no unnecesary fights break among the heroes. Put your sword away."

"You can't be serious!" Chrom yelled, astonished. "He destroyed your world. He's no hero!"

"He's here bounded by a contract like all of us, and has made no aggresive or hostile actions against anyone regardless of their origin, listening to the summoner's advice." Marth made a small pause, gulping. Her hands were shaking. "Unlike you."

Chrom's face of confusion, anger and disapointment felt like a punch in the stomach, but Marth didn't move, still defending the Fell Dragon behind her. Grima said nothing, but cautiously watched the exchange. Despite the apparent indiference with she was showing, she couldn't really be alright with this. Grima had thought of leaving several times already, but didn't want to leave her alone with Chrom.

"What's going on?"

The three of them turned their heads and saw the summoner and Sharena aproaching them. But their faces revealed they had a good idea already of what was going one. Chrom didn't hold himself back.

"Kiran! You can't keep this thing here! Send him back!"

The summoner breathed deeply, has if they had already known something like this would happen sooner or later.

"I won't. Sending someone back it's not easier than summoning them, and I've already found him a team he can work with. Enemies are becoming stronger. I'm sorry, but we need him."

"You can't be serious!"

"Would you rather let him go so he can continue destroying his world?"

Chrom pressed his lips, not having an answer for that; or perhaps not wanting to answer. He yelled of frustration at the other source, staring at Marth.

"You and I will talk!"

Marth looked away and bit her lower lip. Grima then steped forward, grabbing her arm to pull her behind him, hiding her with his body. He glared directly at Chrom's eyes.

"You will leave her _alone_." There was a threat behind his words.

"Chrom." Kiran intervined, trying to stop the tension from exploding. "As I see it right now, you are the only one making a fuss about all of this. Please, leave."

Chrom stared back at them, unable to believe what he was hearing. But they didn't seem to care about his reasons, so he left. Kiran saw him with worry. The news was sure to spread fast, faster that he would have liked. He sighted and looked at Marth.

"There are many free roms here, so… hum… you can change if you want. Sharena and I will help you move your things.

Marth finally put away her sword, and nodded, not trusting her voice.

That night, she had a nightmare for the first time in months.

* * *

When Marth opened the door of her new room, the last thing she expected to find was both Morgans staring at her in excitement.

A week had passed since Chrom's encounter with Grima. While no one had openly questioned or blamed her about it but the other Lucina and Sully, tensions had raised around her. Marth openly avoided the Shepherds if possible, not training with them anymore and eating with the Askrians. The warm welcome her lost family had given her at first quickly turned into an awkwardness everyone wanted to flee from. The Askrians and the summoner tried to spent more time with her to comfort her, but she was alone most of the time, not having anyone she trusted in to confide to anymore. And despite having interfered so Chrom couldn't lash out at her, Grima didn't seem to aknowledge her existence either.

"Hi!" The male Morgan greeted her with a huge smile on his face. "Have you eaten yet? We hope not!"

"Sharena told us about a great place for a picnic not too far from here, and we wanted you to come with us!" His female counterpart informed. "Alphonse gave us some food and the summoner even baked a blueberry pie!"

"Will you come? Please, please, please, please, please, please, please!" Both Morgans stared at her with a hopefull and sad expression.

"Ah… um…" Marth was taken aback by their excitement, but she soon realized she was couldn't resist those puppy eyes. "…Fine. But I need to take some things first."

The Morgans threw their hands to the air in excitement and Marth got the feeling she had fallen into some kind of trap. Or perhaps not a trap, but those two were clearly planning something.

"I'll go get my pegasus and I'll see you and Morgan in the meeting point. Don't be late, lunch won't last forever!" And with those words, she just left them.

The other Morgan waited patiently until she was ready and then guide her through the castle and a couple of secret passages. They left though the back side of the walls completely unoticed, and walked until they reached a grove ten minutes away from the building. The pegasus and his rider were waiting there already, with a couple of bags with food with them.

"Are you sure he'll be able to stand our weight?" The male Morgan sounded worried.

"Of course! Hisanha is very strong. He can stand more than this!" She replied.

When she heared that, Marth stared at the animal in disbelief. "Did you call him "pegasus" in Plegian?"

Both Morgans stared at her in surprise, and the boy started smiling, realizing Marth knew Plegian as well. The other Morgan blushed, flustered, and crossed her arms, looking away to try and hide her embarassement.

"Maybe I did!" She replied.

"It's so silly, it's great!" Her male counterpart was laughing.

Marth ended up chuckling as well. It really was silly. "It's exactly the kind of thing I should expect from both of you."

"Well, let's go already. It will still take us a while to get to the place."

The male Morgan snickered when he saw her female counterpart trying to change the topic. Marth gave them a small smile, and the three of them mounted the animal. Three people plus several bags of food was too much weigh for him to fly with, but he could still use his wings to increase the speed of his gallop. They reached a small hill with several trees near a lake a little more than an hour later. Once they dismounted, Morgan took her pegasus to the lake so he could drink and rest a little, while the other two started getting everything ready. Marth had to admit she was feeling hungry.

They ate while they talked about other heroes from different worlds, and Marth noticed the male Morgan had a strange fixation with the summoner's robe. The female Morgan stared at the lake with sadness, wanting to swim but not having  brought more clothes to change herself into. At some point Hisanha had to be punished by getting tied to a tree because he tried to eat Marth's sandwich and apple. Marth had to refuse three times to spill all the secrets about other heroes she had discovered in her almost permanent stay at the castle. She did tell them about a couple of secret rooms and ways to go to one part of the castle to the other thought the roofs, though.

A couple of hours later, Marth sighted. It had been fun, the funniest day in weeks, in fact, and she was inmensely grateful. But she knew they couldn't keep it up.

"I had a lot of fun today, really," She stared talking " but I don't thing it's a good idea for you to keep doing this. The Shephers won't like seeing you being close to… me."

The pegasus rider finished her tea and put the cup away. It was starting to get late and they should go back to the castle.

"We don't care." She said. "If they don't want to understand you, it's their problem. We're not going to leave you alone." She stared directly at Marth, who was again thankfull for the mask she was wearing. "Robin is your mother too, right?"

Marth pressed her lips, wondering for a moment if she had been that transparent, waiting around the Robins for words that never came. "Father." She corrected.

"They can try to kick us out all they want. We understand how you feel, and it's not fair you have to go through this alone. So we won't leave you, you're family too." The male Morgan stared at her with an unusual intensity on his eyes, almost as if he was angry at something.

Marth bitterly wondered how could they understand he she was feeling, ony to realize the answer a second later. For her, having Robin, _the vessel of Grima that destroyed everything as they knew it_ , was a mere posibility. For them, it was a fact. Robin was always their parent, no matter what. It was a constant that repeated through endless universes, unfaltering and unchangeable. They were the spawn of the god of destruction. Always. _Always._

Marth didn't even want to know how the Robins had reacted to the news of Grima being there as well.

The Morgans got closer to her with a worried look on their faces. "Are you alright?"

Marth realized she had started to cry. She took of her mask and hugged both of them. The three of them remained together, the shaking hands of the Morgans telling her they weren't as calm as they had pretended. She hugged them tighter. Perhaps they weren't actually related, but they were her family.

They started to gather everything up after a while, and Morgan had to give her pegasus an apple as an apology for having tied him to the tree for so long. He was so angry he flatly refused to let them mount.

"Oh, yeah." The male Morgan seemed to have remembered something. "Do you want us to keep calling you 'Marth' even in private?"

"Yes." She doubted for an instant, but remembered they hadn't reacted negatively when she had spoken before. "And also, I'd like you to use male pronouns with me from now on. Even in public."

The male Morgan looked at her a little bit worried. "Are you sure? We understand you want to separate youself from the other Lucina, but…"

"I've never cared much about gender." Marth confessed. "Wether I'm treated as the Ylissean princess or the legendary Hero-King, it doesn't bother me. I'd rather be Marth now."

"Ok, then. We will!"

"Yeah, sure!" The female Morgan smiled at him too. Then she turned to her pegasus. "Come on, Hisanha, don't be stubborn! We have to go back!" She yelled at the animal.

He snorted, watching her from a cautious distance. He wanted more than one single apple as an apology.

* * *

The Morgans had to leave Marth on the grove close to the castle and let him walk on his own the rest of the way. He didn't want to risk the Shepherds actually seen them together, even if their absence for half of the day was suspicious enough. He had threatened to jump from the pegasus when they complained about it, and they eventually let him go down and watched him sneak back into the castle.

 The pegasus had barely landed when Lucina came out, followed by Gerome, Inigo and Severa. or Laslow and Selena, as they prefered now. They didn't seem happy with them.

"Where were you? We didn't see you at the castle. And neither we saw Marth." Lucina's voice sounded plain acusatory.

"In a picnic." The pegasus rider answered, ignoring them to check on her pegasus feathers.

"With Marth?" Severa seemed equally unhappy.

"Yes." The other Morgan said, staring back at them.

"She defended that monster over her own father. She's a traitor." Gerome's voice was neutral, but the words were not.

"We agreed to overlook it this time." Lucina informed them. "But she's not to be trusted anymore. Stop implicating yourselves with her or—"

"Or what?" The male Morgan snapped, stepping towards her. "Will you tell the others and kick us out of our rooms and the table? Wow, how scary! As if we wanted to be with some people with their heads so far up their asses they can't even wonder why something like that would happen!"

"What reason could there possibly be?!" Lucina yelled back, stepping towards as well, refusing to let him intimidate her.

He took that chance to stare directly at her eyes. "Well, I don't know! Maybe you're not the only ones suffering! Maybe he's the one suffering the most and doesn't know how to deal with it! Maybe he's being constantly reminded of the fact that one of her parents murdered the other in cold blood and then turned into a monster that destroyed everything and was only trying to protect the only family he has left!"

The Brand of the Exalt could be seen clear as a day on his right eye. Lucina stepped back, shocked by the revelation. But that meant he was… he was…

Morgan frowned. "No wonder you're Sully's daughter. You can't see beyond what's right in front of your eyes." His voice poured dissapointment.

He stormed off, not even waiting for other Morgan.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Owain didn't go because he recognizes the Morgan's Chaotic Energy and he knows they're Not To Be Messed With. 
> 
> Happy new year! I hope this holidays were great!


	3. Chapter 3

The summoner kept fidgeting with their shiny rectangle, betraying their aparent calmness. Chrom still didn't understand how that thing worked and how could it show information about the heroes.

The Exalt sighted, his white armor moving slightly with his chest. "Alright. If Grima is Marth's father, I can undertsand why she… I mean, he'd react like that…" He paused.

Marth was condemend to see his father being used like a puppet in the hands of Grima. And yet, the thought of hurting the only thing left of his family was too much for the masked young man. How much more he'd have to suffer…?

Kiran eyed cautiously at Chrom. "You took this better than I expected." They admited.

"What do you mean?"

"Ah, nothing. I think the other Chrom's isn't very happy knowing there are versions of him with very different relationships. It's not like I don't understand, really. The idea is awkward to say the least."

"Well, I did marry Robin in my realm, so nothing you've told me is that unexpected." He admited, blushing softly. "I guess I'm a bit luckier with the circumstances."

Kiran nodded at him. Then he looked like he had just remembered something. "Oh, right! Since you're here already, I'll tell you. We'll be going on a small expedition in a couple of weeks. There's been enemy sightings and Alphonse wants to investigate. I was thinking of bringing you with a flexible team. There will be three more other teams, of course." Then they looked at Chrom. "Including the one with Grima. Are you fine with that?"

The Exalt nodded with a serious expression. "He's here to fight like all of us, I can't expecto him not to be around." Then he smiled at the summoner. "Sure, you can count with me."

"Sweet! Thanks."

* * *

The day they departed Chrom realized he didn't know most of the heroes that went with him. One team were Askrians with the summoner. Another was formed by a bluehaired noble from a place called Jugdrall called Sigurd, a blonde monk with long hair called Lucius, an archer girl that loved hunting called Rebecca, and a green knight on a horse called Abel. The third team was Grima's. They were a muscular man with a golden sword named Ike, a man in a red armour named Lukas and a girl with a bow and on a horse called Lyn. The fourth member was Grima himself.

The three first members of the team greeted each other warmly. When it came to Grima, they kept it short as Grima nodded at them in acknowledgement, but Chrom noticed respect from them towards their team member. It looked more that they didn't talk too much to him because they knew they wouldn't get much chitchat, rather than because they disliked him. The girl, Lyn, even invited him to mount her horse with her so he could keep up with the rest more easily. Grima actually accepted and thanked her. But besides that unexpected event, and despite Chrom keeping an eye on the Fell Dragon the whole journey from his own position at the rear of the group, the most fascinating thing Grima did was yawning; which was followed by Lyn asking if he had slept well. The exchange developed into a short and extremelly generic conversation about sleeping habits.

Chrom was confused and strangely disappointed.

They marched for three days and set up a more permanent camp. The summoner quickly organized a scouting team with Chrom, Lyn, Sigurd and Abel, since all of them were riding a horse, to check for anything that could be of importance in the surrounding area. When they came back several hours later, they had nothing to report, but Kiran didn't consider it something bad. It most likely meant that place was safe.

They explored the surroundings for the next five days. Most of the time, whenever they found enemies, they fled instead of attacking. They had a few skirmishes, but not many. Sharena seemed to be optimistic about it, but both Anna and Kiran seemed to agree it was odd. It was on the sixth day that Sigurd's group informed them of having found a small fortress surrounded by mountains and a thick forest half a day away from there. Kiran and Alphonse seemed to agree that was the enemy base. If they chased them out, get the supplies and send periodic scouts to check on it, things would get peacefull there for a while.

The summoner went to his tent to prepare their next move.

* * *

Chrom was woken up by someone shaking him a bit violently. He tensed up, startled, and saw Lukas staring at him from above with a grave expression.

"Chrom, wake up. We were invaded last night. Kiran was kidnapped."

That cleared the Exalt's head in an instant. He got out of his tent. Everyone was either checking the camp or waking up the few heroes that were still asleep. Chrom saw Alphonse talking to Anna and Sharena, the three of them sharing an anxious face.

"How could it happen? We had guards."

"Grima believes the enemies we found were scouts who had the task of checking our forces." Lukas answered. "How many people are there, what are our abilities, our suplies, our disposition of the tents and so on. Then they slept us with magic. From what I understand, a spell like that can't be done on may people at once, so they must have wanted to be sure they brought enough mages to achieve it."

"Did they take them to the fortress?"

"It's likely."

The archer girl arrived at that moment. She went straight to talk with Grima, who was standing not too far from Alphonse's group.

"There were several tracks going on different directions, but none of them seems to aproach the fortress. It could be a diversion, but—"

"Of course it's a diversion." Grima rolled his eyes. Chrom had to double-check he was seeing correctly.

Alphonse got closer when he heard him talk. "How sure you are?"

"The closest village is a week away. They need to get away fast, and the only way to do that is on horse or pegasus. The animals could only be hidden in a building."

"Then your team should go check the fortress." Anna decided. "Bring the rest of the cavaliers so you can get there as fast as possible. The rest will stay here protecting the camp and getting everything ready for your return."

Grima nodded at that, walked towards Lyn, who had finished getting her horse ready. He mounted with her as they waited for the rest of cavaliers. Ike went with Abel and Lukas mounted with Sigurd, leaving Chrom alone on his horse. Lyn started rinding into the woods, and the rest followed.

* * *

They reached the fortress a little more than a half day away and hid while observing the building. It had a thick wall around it, but they could see the main building and the stables from their position. They expected a lot of activity, but things were quiet.

"We should attack fast and leave fast, before they notice we've arrived." Abel proposed. Several others nodded.

"We could free the animals to cause chaos." Ike proposed.

"They need them to run away fast. If they flee scared, they'll have more trouble organizing." Chrom agreed. "Even if the animals end up coming back after a while."

Pretty much everyone agreed and added some quick details, except for one person. Grima kept watching the building with a slight frown of concentration without saying a word from atop of a small hill, a bit separated form the rest. Lukas aproached him.

"Do you agree with the plan?" He asked, with a calm smile. He had to wait a few seconds before he got his answer.

"No, it won't work." Grima replied, not even bothering to look at them.

Chrom, Abel and Sigurd frowned when they heard that, but the Fell Dragon's team seemed far less surprise by his answer.

"Why?" Lyn asked, with genuine curiosity.

Grima squinted and leaned his head slightly, still staring at the fortess. Watching. Thinking. Analizing. Chrom felt a shiver running through his back. He was doing exactly the same thing as Robin did when he tried to tackle an important tactical problem. Check everything, think of everything. Every posibility, every movement, every weapon, every enemy, every range. If you had data, you could predict everything that could happen, and you could save everyone. But you had to check, you have to analyze, you had to think.

It wasn't that he hadn't answered yet because he was ignoring Lyn. He hadn't answered because he was considering the best possible action for their attack. But that wasn't Robin, Chrom reminded himself. That was Grima, the monster that had killed him, he reminded himself. He still felt a sudden pang of anxiety and stared at the Fell Dragon.

"They already know we're here." Grima said. "That's why it's quiet. They expect us, and prepared an ambush accordingly, pretending everything is fine. The stables are quiet. They moved the animals somewhere else so they wouldn't get scared with the fight, and could use them to get the summoner away in the midst of the battle."

Sigurd and Abel stared at him in surprise. Chrom felt like he was going to throw up. Watching his friends body being mocked like that, as if it was a puppet for the dragon who was just pretending to be a tactician. That plan wasn't going to work. It was absurd, stilted and… and… exactly the kind of stupidly specific tactic Robin would think of, and would work perfectly given the right specific circumstances.

It was like watching Robin while knowing he wasn't there. And yet…

"I'll be a distraction." Grima kept talking. "I'll try to break a wall or two, and the stables if they're close, to make them panic and get out while guiding them away from this side of the fortress. Lyn, you'll come with me. Shot arrows fom behind while running from one place to another. I'll hold them off for the most part, you only need to make them panic and think they're been attacked from several places at once." Grima then stared at her with a frown. "Make sure you're away and safe from them."

She nodded, getting her bow ready.

"I need two cavaliers to join the battle once things have started up. If we're lucky they'll think we have reinforcements and will panic. If not, at least they'll be confused and paranoid for a while. But not two swords, I want you to have coverage."

Sigurd offered to go and Chrom was too busy thinking something was off to complain about it.

"The rest will try to get inside once the battle is as chaotic as possible. Be careful, and leave the last horse here. It won't be of much use inside the building. Both the summoner and the animals should be on the underground level. Questions?"

No one asked anything. Abel and Sigurd seemed slightly impressed, but Grima's team looked like they were used to this kind of planning. Lyn got on her horse and waited for Grima to mount as well before going off.

Chrom watched from the place they were hiding in. Grima appeared alone from the trees around and aproached the building without hurry. The couple of soldiers that were guarding yelled at him, but didn't seem to do much. Either they were confused about someone being there, or they knew there should be more people around. And given the vigilance the heroes had seen the previous days, the first option wasn't likely.

Grima ignored them. He positioned his feet in a way that would let him keep his balance more easily. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes. Purple smoke started to emanate from his body at a fast speed and in huge cuantities, floating and twisting as if trying to take a specific form. Chrom recognized the head of the dragon that still gave him nightmares; a clear siluete, if strangely phantasmagorical and lacking in solid matter. The smoke dragon and the human roared, in creating a disturbing howl that sounded like monster and human at the same time. The phantasmagorical head spit black energy that looked like fire towards the closest wall.

It exploded, and several fragments of debris fell on the stable's roof, making it collapse. The lack of panicked animal yells confirmed the horses, wyverns, and pegasi had been taken somewhere else.

The watchers were positively terrified, and one of them quickly went to warn the rest of his partners. A wave of soldiers came from the building seconds later, and all of them threw themselves into Grima. He stared at them while raising his arms on front of his face and endure the weapon attacks while moving back very slowly. Arrows soon started to fall in front of him, slowying down the enemies, thanks to Lyn.

"Why isn't he running away?" Chrom asked, startled when he saw Grima simply standing there letting everyone hit him.

"Using that power takes a toll on him." Ike explained. "It takes him a few minutes to recover enough to move properly again."

Lukas nodded, having seen him fight many times already. "But he will be fine. Normal weapons make little damage on him, he heals quite quickly."

They kept watching, and a few minutes later another wave of purple appeared and the dragon head attacked again, sending soldiers and debris flying away. More than half of the enemies attacked him again, but the damage Grima had done was considerable. Sigurd and Abel judged it was a good time to join.

The enemy forces seemed to panic when they saw them appear, not knowing where to focus the bulk of their force. Lukas waited until Sigurd and Abel had them completely distracted before nodding at Ike and Chrom, and they stared to approach the building.

They run hiding in the bushes until they were next to the wall. Ike guided them inside through a hole on it that had appeared thanks to one of Grima's attacks. They managed to get inside the building unnoticed. But the fortress itself wasn't empty. Ike, Chrom and Lukas readied themselves and charged against the few soldiers that were still inside. The battle was short, and they moved to the underground floor next.

There were another couple of guards in the dungeon, but Lukas managed to defeated them almost unharmed. He took the keys of the cells and the three of them started searching for the summoner. They were on one of the last cells, not too far from the ones that contained the horses and pegasi (Grima had been completely right, Chrom realized). Ike hurried and opened the cell, while Lukas got next to Kiran.

"Are you alright?" He asked, worried. He helped them stand up once he realized Kiran was having trouble standing and needed to lean on the wall.

"I think… they drugged me…" The summoner said, with effort, and closing their eyes. "Everything is dizzy… can't focus…"

"We'll take you back to the camp in no time." Chrom promised. Ike got closer to Kiran and helped them to get in his back.

"How did you…?" Kiran started while they were moving back through the dungeon.

"Grima planned it. He guessed everything right, like always." Lukas answered, with a small smile. Despite having being told hew terrible Grima was on his world of origin, he had ended up being a good partner, and the Valentian soldier was proud of being part of his team.

To Chrom's surprise, Kiran groaned when they heared that. "But he still… refuses to go to the… strategy meetings… Stupid Robin… So stubborn…"

Chrom raised his eyebrows in surprise, but someone interrupted his thoughts.

"At last." Grima had entered the building and was waiting for them in the entrance with an unamused look. Lyn, Abel and Sigurd were next to him. "Did you get lost or what?"

"We were begining to think you had found trouble in the dungeons." Lyn added, showing her worry.

"My apologies. We found several soldiers on the first floor and took us a while to go to the dungeon." Lukas explained.

"How is the summoner?" Sigurd asked.

"Not in inmediate danger, but we should hurry back to camp." Ike said. The rest nodded, got out to of the fort, and mounted the horses to return.

On the way back, the Exalt looked at Grima. His clothes were torn in several parts, and there were small wounds bleeding slightly from everywhere on his body. Yet, he didn't seem to mind it the slightest. But the most important thing was that the cloth of his gloves had almost dissapeared due to the number of slashes they had received.

Chrom couldn't stop staring at his hands. The right one had the Brand of the Defile, shining against his pale skin like an open, bleeding wound. The Robin of Chrom's world no longer had such a mark on his skin, the Fell Dragon having been defeated forever.

Grima's left hand had a silver band with Ylisse's crest on his ring finger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Grima's team is my main team in Heroes, except sometimes I change Lyn with Veronica and Lukas with Fjorm. 
> 
> Also, I realized like two days ago Chrom is never an Exalt because he rejects the title, but my brain deleted that for some reason. I do remember someone in game calling him Exalt. But whatever, I'm not going to change it. It's easier to diferenciate between the Chroms in this story this way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of warning here: there is a smut scene! It's short and not too explicit, but I'm afraid it's not very skippable. Sorry if it's not your thing!

Lucius examined the summoner and confirmed they weren't in any inmediate danger, but it would be the best to go back to the castle and have more healers check them up. The area had been cleared from enemies, the fort was empty and they had taken most supplies from the building, so the scouting mission had technically been a success. There was no reason to risk further danger.

Once at the castle, Marth welcomed them back. He got worried when he knew Alphonse and Sharena were very insistent on bringing Kiran to the infirmary, but Rebecca quickly filled him on the situation. Marth nodded at her and said he'd inform the rest of the Order about it. He told them to leave the supplies in the storehouse; someone else would sort them later.

Everyone started leaving the place, Grima being the first one to do so, not even waiting for the masked man to stop talking. Chrom watched him go, but didn't follow. Instead, he aproached Lukas.

"Hey, Lukas. I was wondering if I could talk to you." He made a small pause. "In private."

The soldier didn't answer inmediately, staring instead at the hallway Grima had left through. "Of course." He smiled. "Can you come to my room in about an hour? Oh, do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, you were from Valm, right? I mean, Valentia. I'll be there."

Lukas nodded and then bid him farewell, leaving as well. Chrom sighted. He had an hour to kill and didn't feel like answering the questions from the rest of the Shepherds at the dining hall or the training grounds. The Robins would probably notice he had something on his mind. He decided to sneak into his room for clean clothes and take a bath.

Once he finished, he went for Lukas' room. It took a while to go to the other side of the castle, and he was afraid to be late, thinking perhaps the soldier could decide to go somewhere else out of boredom. But Lukas opened the door inmediately once Chrom knocked it.

"Welcome." He smiled at the Exalt and stepped aside, letting him enter the room. There were a couple of chairs ready around a desk with steaming mugs on it. "Genny brought me tea a little while ago, so I poured a cup for you."

"Thank you." Chrom smiled, and sat down on the closest chair.

Lukas sat in front of him and talked before Chrom could say anything else. "This is about Grima, isn't it?"

Chrom stopped smiling. Was it that obvious or was he just that easy to read? In any case, he nodded.

"That's what I suspected. It's pretty obvious you Ylisseans and Grima have a…" He stopped for a few seconds, thinking for a good word. Then he sighted and decided he wasn't going to mince the words. "bad relationship. Far worse than us with the possessed Celica or the Hoshidans and Nohrians with the possessed Takumi. You're even the first one to try to ask someone from Grima's team about him, in fact. I'm quite surprised."

"What do you mean, 'possessed' Celica and Takumi?" The words alarmed Chrom.

"Haven't you noticed there are two Celicas at the dining hall? Valentian redhaired girls with white robes. So similar they could be twins."

Chrom believed he remembered people like that, and nodded.

"One of them had her soul taken by Duma and she attacked us. Or will…" He sighted and Chrom nodded. If they focused on the details over dates, they would get nowhere. "In any case, she was a bit of a threat at first to us when she was summoned here, but she was the second possessed person to appear, and we already had an idea on what to do. The first one was Takumi."

Lukas stared at the Exalt with a serious expression. "When that Takumi got summoned, he did nothing but walk around the castle like a doll until he found the Corrins. Then, he tried to kill them."

Chrom stared back at Lukas in surprise. The soldier nodded and drank some tea. "We can't kill each other, but that didn't stop him. He tried again, and again, and again until the summoner decided it would be better to take his bow away. He went crazy after that, and became far more aggresive than before. Kiran had practically decided to send him away due to how out of control he had become; but Sakura, his younger sister, begged him not to."

"Why? Wouldn't she and everyone else be safer if he wasn't around?"

Lukas made a small pause, ordering his thoughts. "Yes. But I guess she didn't want to let her brother go in that state, so she begged the summoner to let her try to help him. The summoner accepted, but only if Takumi showed sings of improvement in a month. He was too dangerous."

Chrom nodded, serious.

"Sakura was always next to him, heping him, talking to him, scolding him softly when he did something bad. We discovered she had even been sneaking into his room at the Askrian floor to keep him company at night. Ryoma was so angry when he discovered that… But it worked. Takumi became less and less aggresive, he started remembering things about his life and even listened carefully to what Sakura told him instead of staring off. Several months later, Kiran decided to make a final test and have him in front of the Corrins with his weapon, and he didn't attack them."

"So he got better?"

"Better, yes. Good, no." Lukas specified. "Kiran decided he was good enough to live with the rest of the Hoshidans if everyone involved agreed, so he moved with them and hasn't given trouble since. But he's still possessed, and it's like a part of him is empty, as eerily as it may sound."

Lukas closed his eyes. "So, when the possessed Celica got summoned, we already knew of something that could help her. We took her sword, stayed with her as much as we could to give her some company and help her remember her old life, and she slowly improved her condition until she basically became a very serious and quiet girl." He smiled warmly. "The other Celica treats her like a little sister. I think she finds that a bit confusing. And I'd even say Mae is a little jealous."

Chrom thought it was awkward instead of adorable, but he kept that to himself. He hadn't been through any of that, anyway.

Then Lukas sighted. "In both cases, two people we know of and who are dear to us got possesed by something else and attacked us against their will, so we tried to help them remmember who they had been. But, as far as I'm aware, that is not the case with Grima, so the summoner just couldn't ask the Shepherds for help. Am I wrong?"

Chrom drank from his tea and was silent for a few seconds, staring at it. "I would usually say you are right, but…" He started, then frowned and left the cup on the table.

"But?" Lukas repeated, not having expected that answer at all.

"I'm not sure." Chrom admited with a sight. "Grima doesn't behave like I was expecting, like how I thought he would given my memories of my fight against him in my world. And that's why I wanted to talk with you. I want you to tell me two things about him you probably know if you've been his teammate for a while." He frowned, pensive.

"Very well. If I can answer them, I will."

"Does he usually plan like that?"

"Ah, yes." Lukas smiled again. "The summoner's planning is very good, but there have been times when they made a mistake that put us in danger. Grima always takes charge and improvises something that saves us."

"Always?" Chrom asked. He had to be sure.

"Yes. He hasn't failed a single time yet. The first time it happened we weren't sure if we could follow his orders. We were half sure he would sacrifice us to save himself, given what we knew of him, but… it didn't happen. We even suffered less injuries that we had while following Kiran's plan. He truly tried to make sure we were as safe as possible."

Chrom realized his heart had started to beat faster. He breathed deeply in an attempt to calm down his anxiety.

"Alright. And have you ever noticed he has a ring on his left hand? Has he ever said anything about it?"

"Oh. I did notice, and tried to ask him about it once it looked like he liked us more…" Lukas frowned, remembering the time. The anger and sadness he had seen on his face. "He threatened me to never speak about it again, or to anyone else."

Chrom had expected an answer like that. He didn't know if it made things easier or more difficult.

"Thank you. That was all I wanted to know. Or all I could think of to ask, I guess."

"If you need something else, I'll be here or training."

Chrom stood up and looked at him with curiosity. "Why are you so willing to tell me things about Grima. He's your teammate, and him and I are pretty much enemies."

"Perhaps Grima's behaviour is different from the possessed Celica and Takumi, but he's still very powerful and lacks any meaningful bond with any other hero, nor he tries to make them. That could be really dangerous, so the summoner tried to supply that support being there for him themselves. Grima is better than before, but the overall success has been… arguable." Lukas frowned with worry.

"And you think I could be better?" Chrom guessed his thoughts.

"I do. You're not only the first Ylissean that goes on a mission with him, but also the first to show interest in him, to the point of wanting to ask his teammates about him. You already more know about him than any other hero here, so you can do better than any of us." Lukas stared directly at Chrom's eyes. "I think _you_ already wanted to help him, but didn't know where to start, and came to me for information that would help you situate yourself."

Chrom closed his eyes, thinking of an answer. "I… have reached a conclusion of sorts… but I need to talk with the summoner first. Something is… " He trailed off. "Strange. I feel like I'm missing something about this."

"Then you should go to his room." The soldier informed. "Genny told me before they were fine, and they had been told to go rest to their room until tomorrow."

The Exalt smiled at him. "Thank you, I'll do that."

* * *

Kiran was surprised when they saw Chrom at their door with a smile, asking them if they could talk.

"Sure." They opened the door wider and let him in. "I was trying to investigate a bit about the Tellius realm, but I can't concentrate much…" They frowned, annoyed. "Although I thought you would be with the Shepherds, telling them about the mission."

"Ah, um… I'll talk later with them. I've been thinking of something since then, and Lukas told me to speak with you…" He started.

"Is this about Grima?" Kiran replied, looking suspiciously at him.

Chrom sighted. "Is it really that obvious? You're the second person to guess that today."

"Ah, well, not really. It's just you're the first Ylissean not counting Marth that agreed to get physically close to him without murdering intentions, so I guess it's easy to jump on conclusions." They looked at Chrom apologetically. "So, what did you want to know?"

Chrom sighted. "Well, I'm not very sure. It's just… They way he behaved on that mission and the way he did the time I saw him in my world are… very different." He made a small pause and stared at Kiran's eyes. "Almost if they were different people."

The sumoner pressed their lips and look away. They seemed uncomfortable.

"You _know_ something about this." Despite having wanted to talk to them, Chrom hadn't been completely sure of Kiran being able to answer. They had a lot of technical knowledge of the heroes, but rarely, if ever, personally knew them better than the people from the same world.

"I can't control the summons, but I can investigate about the realms in order to narrow the amount of options." He explained. "I… do have found texts with information that is not always common knowledge on each world."

They crossed their hands, thinking of a good way to explain this; a good way to tell Chrom what he needed to know to reach the right conclusion. Grima had begged him to not say anything about it to anyone else, specially the Shepherds, and the summoner didn't want to betray the little trust he had managed to build in case whatever Chrom was trying to achieve failed spectacularly.

And, well, Grima hadn't begged as much as threatened, but the summoner knew how he was actually feeling behind his act.

"What do you know about Grima?" Kiran asked Chrom.

"Ah… what?"

"What do you know about Grima?" They repeated.

"Um… well... It is a giant dragon that tried to destroy the world, it needs a… vessel, " Chrom still felt uncomfortable saying that word. It was like implying that Robin wasn't a person. "and can't be destroyed by anything that isn't itself."

"Nothing else? Like it's relationship with the risen?"

Chrom shook his head, paying more attention than before. Kiran frowned, thinking.

"Ok. I'll give you the short version, details aren't that important." They paused briefly, ordering their thoughts. "In your world, a very long time ago even from Marth and Alm's time, there was an alchemist that tried to create an army of undead people."

Chrom's eyes widened in horror, but he didn't interrupt.

"He succeded. By accident, he mutated a type of insect capable of reanimating corpses and… well, you've fought risen. You know how they are better than me. There's basically a colony of these bugs inside every risen, controlling it through roots they can grow on the body."

Chrom made a nauseated face. "Gods… Alright, and?"

"He got divine dragon blood, he mixed it with his own and… well, he infected at least a colony with it. It developed and became what we know as 'Grima'."

"A colony…?"

"It's not known what happened later exactly, but my guess is that he was either killed by Grima, or became the first vessel, since giving it his blood was like making a blood pact."

"Wait…" Chrom asked. He put a hand on his forehead. "Wait, wait. What are you saying?"

Kiran sighted. "Grima is not…" He stopped and pressed his lips. "Grima is… 'Grima' is the most powerful colony of thanatophages that exists at any given moment, once a blood ritual and a proper vessel have been prepared."

Chrom stared. He didn't know if he wanted to listen to the rest.

"Living bodies kill parasites, so a good vessel should have low resistance to the bugs, but not so low it dies because of them. Only enough to make them hibernate or something like that, so the bugs could stay without killing the host, nor the host killing the colonies."

"Are you…" Chrom didn't want to ask that. "Are you implying… _they_ have… bugs inside?!"

"At least four colonies hidden in their organs and muscles, yeah…" Kiran looked away when they confirmed it.

"And what else?" The Exalt's hand around his forehead tightened. He had enought with the conversation, but had the feeling Kiran hadn't finished yet.

"Once the ritual is done, the power of the dragon blood awakens. But only one colony can be 'Grima', so they fight for the dominance of the vessel. The most powerful one will have the rest under its control, as well as the colonies that exist nearby, which are the ones on the risen."

Wait. Wait. What was that? Did that mean…?

"And…" Chrom said, staring at Kiran. "and can the vessel fight for dominance as well?"

The summoner was silent for three eternal seconds.

"As far as I know, there's nothing stopping them from trying."

* * *

Chrom knocked at the door. It was time for dinner, and most heroes were at the dining room eating with their friends, but the summoner had confirmed to the Exalt that Grima always went late to eat to avoid the Shepherds (technically everyone, but mostly the Shepherds). And he was always in his room unless he was sent on a mission. He didn't even train.

He knocked again. Almost half an hour had passed since he had started knocking and hadn't received an answer. But he was sure that if he annoyed him just enough…

The door opened, and Chrom jumped back, startled. Grima stared at him, looking very annoyed. Chrom tried to smile at him.

"Uh, hi! Eh, can we talk?" He tried his best to not sound as startled as he was.

Grima slammed the door on his face without even answering. The lock sounded once he put the key and turned it. Chrom sighted. Of course it wasn't going to be easy.

"I know you are Robin." He said.

The door didn't answer. Chrom felt himself growing impatient. Why was he so stubborn?

"You protect Marth from the rest of the Shepherds because he chose to defend you, and you do it because he's _your_ child. You acept and engage in random banter with your teammates. You protect them if things go wrong. You plan if things go wrong. The summoner knows you are Robin. You refuse to accept to help on the strategies because it will be easier to know it's you through them. You…" Chrom racked his brain trying to think of something that would get him a reaction. Any reaction. "You still wear the ring I gave you when I asked you to marry me!"

Chrom heard the lock opening, but Grima didn't say anything back. Instead, he stepped out and looked around the door, as if making sure there was nobody around. Then grabbed Chrom forcefully from his arm and shoved him inside the room. He entered next and locked the door again.

Grima's eyes were brimming with fury.

" _You_ have not. Given me. Anything." The words were sharp like a knife.

Chrom stood quiet, thinking of something to say, but those eyes kept piercing him with rage. With pain. With sadness. With loneliness. _He_ wasn't the Chrom that had given him a ring. That Chrom was dead, murdered. Killed by Robin's own hands. The details were irrelevant, that was what had happened.

"Congrats!" Grima said, walking around the room, "You've proved to have eyeballs and a functional brain that let's solve simple puzzles, unlike most people here." He stopped and faced him again. He looked indifferent, but Chrom saw his body was tense. "So?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think this changes anything?"

Chrom crossed his arms. "Yes, I do; given all the trouble you've gone through to keep it hidden."

Grima frowned slightly when he heard that, and purple puffs of smoke softly started to emanate from his body. Chrom didn't know if he as trying to intimidate him or if he had simply hit a sensitive spot, but he was sure his guess had been right.

"I'm just saving myself unnecesary future annoyances." He replied, with a tense expression.

"I'd say this has been more than an annoyance for Marth." Chrom countered.

The smoke around Grima intensified, he tensed his jaw, and his fists had started shaking. "That's his problem for poking his nose when it's none of his business!"

"You can seriously tell me that watching his fathers fight is none of his business." Chrom frowned when he heard that.

"Yes, I can! Because I'm not his father. I'm not Robin anymore, it's just Grima now!" The smoke intensified so much Chrom could barely see the rest of the room anymore, but he could ony pay attention to Grima's painfull expression.

"Why are you keeping this up?!" Chrom replied. The person in front of him looked like he was going to break down at any moment. He looked like he was going to cry.

"Would the Robin you know destroy the world and enjoy every second?! I think not!!" Grima stepped towards Chrom, and he instintively stepped back, regretting not having a weapon on himself. Perhaps going unharmed to not look dangerous to him hadn't been a good idea after all.

"But that's exactly what happened! Because a world that made me kill you doesn't deserve to exist!"

The claim, announced with a roar that made Chrom fall absolutely silent, echoed through the room. Grima's -no, Robin's- eyes, pierced Chrom's with an intensity worthy of the Fell Dragon. His jaw was clenched and his fists were shaking violently, and a storm of purple smoke emanated from his body.

"And I regret nothing. Nothing! Your death is the only thing I would change if I could!" He continued, fury and frustration spilling with every word he said. "Would your Robin say something like this?" He replied with some snark, like someone who was sure to have won an argument.

But Chrom, if surprised, didn't look intimidated. He was starting to understand what was happening, what _had happened_ , to the Robin in front of him. He softly but firmly grabbed Robin's hands. He looked alarmed when he noticed Chrom was trying to stop him from running, but the Exalt talked before he could reply.

"I'm sure it's possible. After all, _you_ just said it."

And in a second, Chrom's soothing and calm voice simply obliterated every argument Robin had thought of to keep him away, to make sure he would be with the Shephereds instead of trying to approach him for whatever reason. To make sure his old world would stay at one side and Grima at the other. To make sure things wouldn't change.

Robin couldn't process what was happening. He felt tears falling from his eyes, and his heart twisting in ache, in remorse, in fear, in hate. But he was unable to move, blink or say anything, his expression frozen in utter uncomprehesion. Why was that happening? If that had been the other Chrom, he would have chased him away within the first ten seconds! Why had the other one matured and become more patient?! He'd ruin everything!

If only that Chrom loathed him like everyone else. Everything would be better. Easier!

His body tensed when he felt something soft on his forehead. Chrom was ignoring the purple smoke coming from Robin and kissing him. He softly undid Robin's clenched fists to grab his hands tenderly.

"S-stop!" The former tactician yelled, trying to get away from him. He wasn't Robin anymore. He wasn't, he wasn't he wasn't! Robin wouldn't kill everyone! Robin wouldn't kill _him_! "Get out already!"

Chrom kept grabbing his hands and staring at his eyes calmly.

"I can see how much you regret what happened to me. And I forgive you." He said.

Instead of hating him like Robin would have wanted, what Chrom did was cleaning his tears away and pressing their lips together. The touch was soft and caring, and for a few seconds, Robin could only stare at the face right in front of him.

Then his primal instincts, increased by the awakened fell blood on his body, robbed him of whatever idea he could had been having. He threw himself onto Chrom's lips, biting with such a strenght he got a small groan from the Exalt. But by the way he grabbed his waist tightly to start grinding against each others crotch, he didn't seem to mind much.

Chrom leaned against the wall while he started to bite rather than kiss Robin's neck. He got rid of the former tactician's robes while said tactician practically tore him from his own clothes. Robin threw himself onto Chrom's lips, which recieved him with an enthusiam he hadn't felt in years. Everything was burning hot and dizzy and Robin's instincts made him agonize because he just _needed_ to keep going, and he suddenly realized they were both naked and panting despite him not remembering the process. It didn't matter because his brain quickly decided that the nipple Chrom had started to suck was more important, and Robin forgot about clothes in that instant. He moaned in surprise when he felt Chrom's fingers slid inside him with extreme ease, realizing just then how wet he was. He had the feeling his brain had started to skip the non important parts.

A fast glance at Chrom was enough to see his cock was as erected as it was going to be, and he was sweating and panting so hard he had started having trouble kissing or biting anywhere. So Robin decided foreplay was over, and got his own crotch closer to Chrom's cock. The Exalt took the hint and grabbed his waist to help. The gasp Robin made when Chrom's member got completly inside of him was inhuman.

It had been so long since the last time it had happened. Since they had been together like that, sharing thair bodies, their intimacy, their trust. Hoping for a pregnancy or just for fun, it didn't matter. Robin missed it so much; he missed _him_ so much. He didn't have a right because everything was his fault, but he did still.

"R-Robin?!" Chrom stopped, worried about the sudden reaction. Had he hurt him?

But Robin just wraped his legs around his waist and yanked his hair. "Don't stop! Gods, _don't stop!_ " He slurred, desperation and need pouring like a fountain from his mouth.

Chrom made sure he had grabbed his legs properly and walked the couple of steps he needed towards the bed, placing him on it while still having his own feet on the ground. He kissed his lips again with increasing need while he made sure he was firmly grabbing Robin's waist. He slowly, gently, _caringly_ pulled out only to push in again. Robin yanked his hair. It was agonizing. It was wonderful. And Chrom seemed to know exactly what to do with every little reaction Robin had, changing the angle the right way or kissing him in the right place. He was _definietly_ fucking the Robin from his realm. And the former tactician also realized he would get an equally positive reaction from the Exalt with almost everything he did. It was absurd and comforting at once.

Chrom's hands holding Robin in place were starting to shake, so Robin simply raised his hips in a sudden to catch him of guard and show him it was fine to increase the pace. Chrom obeyed without hesitation, earning himself a moan of pleasure once he was practically slaming his body towards Robin's, and a couple of hands frantically started to scratch his back. He wanted to ask Robin how was he doing, but the lack of negative reaction had thrown his worry out of the window. His brain could only process the overwhelming pleasure he was feeling and the equally pleasured noises Robin was making.

Robin's orgasmic yell got suffocated by the sudden need to breath, and he gasped for air as if he was about to drown. The increased wetness drove Chrom mad, making him come just a few seconds later, collapsing on him while gasping for air.

He waited a few minutes to recover. Then he got up and held Robin to move him to the side and lay next to him. Robin was going to protest, but he was freed faster than he could talk, and a thick blancket quickly covered both of them. Chrom laid next to him with both of his eyes closed and still breathing a little fast. Robin, already completely recovered, casted a glance at him and then turned, showing him his back. A thick silence fell over them.

Chrom noticed, but didn't say anything. He just waited a while until he had recovered completely and was able to breath normally. He glanced at Robin's back, watching the siluete stay still, and slowly aproached him, slid his arms around Robin's waist for a soft hug and leaned against his back. Robin tensed for a few seconds, not having expected that, and then relax again. He said nothing.

They remained in silence for so long Robin was sure Chrom had fallen asleep, so he didn't expect the soft kiss he felt on his shoulder. The warm lips pressed against his skin for three full seconds before abandoning it. And, a few seconds later, he felt another one on his neck. Then on his hair. His jaw. Again on his shoulder. On his nape. Behind his ear. On the neck once more. On…

"Can you stop?" Robin groaned, without even turning his head.

Chrom did, falling in silence. It wasn't a disapointed silence, or an angry silence. It was like he was thinking what could he say exactly to avoid making him more upset while also letting him continue the kisses. Robin found himself once again wishing Chrom hadn't change. He was so determined to help, to confort him, despite knowing exactly what Grima had done in his own world.

"You don't like it?" Chrom sounded genuinely curious and sligthly concerned. Robin felt awful instantly.

"I don't deserve it." Robin muttered so low he believed Chrom hadn't heard him. A couple of tears had started to fall from his eyes.

But after a few seconds, Chrom's arms tighted yet again against his waist, softly grabbing his naked skin while pressing his lips against his neck one more time, and far longer than any other. Robin realized his own hands were shaking.

"But you need it." Was Chrom gentle and simple answer, whispered softly in the darkness of the room while he kept hugging Robin.

It wasn't fair. Chrom couldn't just appear in Askr, all smiles and friendliness, more patient, experienced and mature, and decide he was going to give that Grima a chance just because a Marth showed concern for him ocasionally. Just because _maybe_ there was something different from him than what he remembered from the one on his realm. Just because the summoner had accidentally spilled his name and, in his tiredness, not corrected himself or say "Oh, right, you're actually Grima. Silly me."

And what right had Chrom to notice those things and investigate them, anyway? He was supossed to be much more impulsive and less sharp. He was supossed to be like the other Chrom, and hate him like everyone else. He was supossed to form a front against him, perhaps even finally convincing Marth to stay with the rest, and keep the hate, suffering and remorse Robin deserved. They needed someone to hate; he deserved that hate.

Robin wished he could hate him. He wished he could have laughed at him when he saw him first at the canteen, remind him of some bad memories just to hurt him, and then forget his existence like with most other heroes. He wished his heart didn't bleed everytime he saw him and the other Chrom around the castle, everytime he remembered how he regained consciousness in the Plegian temple only to realize Chrom was dead in front of him with an electricity dagger thrust in his chest; everytime he heard Marth crying after yet another nightmare.

He couldn't stand it anymore.

He turned forcefully to face Chrom, and stared at him with the most distressed eyes the Exalt had ever seen on him.

"Why?!" With his lips trembling and his eyes so full of tears everything was a bit blurry, he was unable to force himself to make more words.

"I love you." Chrom simply said. He stared at Robin, while calmly resting his head on the pillow. His voice was firm, but gentle. His expression was serene, tranquil. He moved a hand and Robin could see a wedding ring resting on his hand.

It really wasn't fair, and Robin needed several seconds to process the situation and calm down enought to talk.

"Then fuck me until we can't move anymore." His voice cracked towards the end, making it seem like he was begging him rather and ordering him.

Robin crashed his lips against Chrom's, desperate for a comfort he had denied himself for too long. Chrom answered inmediately, hugging his back tightly and pinning him on the bed, Robin still grabbing his hair and struggling to mantain their kiss.

How did he love having those muscular yet caring arms softly opening his legs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the comments!
> 
> I don't really know what else to say, so if you have questions about the AU, put them in the comments and I'll try to answer them!


	5. Chapter 5

Grima woke up and frowned when he heard noise throught the window. He opened his eyes and saw the sun had raised already. It wasn't late, but most people at the castle were definetely up already. He usually woke up before sunrise. It felt strange realizing he was up later than usual.

After struggling for a bit, he managed to escape from Chrom's weigh over him. He picked up his clothes and went to the bathroom. One of the best things about living in the same hallway as the Askrian nobility was having a private shower on each room, instead of sharing a communal bath present on every wing.

Once he finished and went back to the room, he realized it reeked. He opened the window, hoping it would make it better. He didn't have to look at the sheets to know they were the worst mess he had seen in his life. But he got closer anyway to grab Chrom's head and change it's position, stopping him from suffocating himself against the pillow. The asleep Exalt thanked him with a snore.

Grima then noticed there was blood on the sheets. A lot.

"What the fuck?" He mumbled to himself, realizing a second later he'd probably answered himself.

He grabbed the blanket on the cleanest part he could find and uncovered Chrom. His face was fine. The rest of his body was _not_. There were so many scratches and bruises he looked like he had been fighting a pack of wolves and lost. Grima covered him again, feeling a strange mixture of pleasure and anxiety at seeing those wounds. He must have used part of his power unconsciously last night. He got to a closer drawer and took a vulnerary out.

Grima grabbed the handle of the door and listened. Once he made sure there was nobody around, he exited the room and closed it quietly. He had something to do.

* * *

Marth was siting on the top of a narrow tower at the highest parts of the castle. It was a small circular space covered by a pointed roof that could have served as watch tower if it had been conected to the walls. Alphonse believed it could have been used in the past, before the castle had been expanded.

The Ylissean was covered with a blanquet, and leaning against the walls. He was trying to take a quick nap, but the light around him made it difficult, despite having the roof above him protecting him. His eyes snaped opened when he heard steps coming through the stairs. The entrance to that place wasn't exactly hidden, but it was in a part of the castle rarely visited. Nobody ever went there.

He got up and grabbed the Falchion next to him, just in case; and also put on his mask. He didn't have time to make sure the hair looked shorter, but it didn't matter as much. He aproached the stairs that filed almost a third of the space available on the tower and waited. Grima slowly appeared through the hole, staring curiously at the small hoard of things (books, candles, blankets, and even a small table) Marth had brought to his secret place over the time he had spent in Askr. Marth's mouth opened on its own when he appeared. The Fell Dragon was the last person he had expected to see there.

Grima found him after turning his head, and stared at Marth. He had a cautious look, almost awkward; as if he wanted to say someting but didn't know how. He sighted.

"Hello, Marth. I…" He looked away for a moment, and then stared back at him. "I think we should talk. But if you don't want to, I'll leave."

Marth looked away and bit his lower lip. Then he just shrugged. It felt as if he was just surrendering after a defeat. Grima decided to not approach him; he hadn't come there to intimidate him. They remained silent, Grima struggling to find the words he wanted to say. He decided to start with the most important part.

"I'm sorry."

Marth stared at him, confused about what he had just heard.

"I know an apology is nothing, that means nothing, compared to the destruction I caused… but it's the only thing I can do while I'm here… and it's the least you deserve." He looked away "I'm sorry I lost myself in fury and destroyed everything. I'm sorry I killed everyone and took everything from you because I stupidly thought nothing mattered anymore. I'm sorry the rest of the Shepherds pushed you aside because of me. I'm sorry I've avoided you; I didn't want to make things worse and didn't believe you'd want me around at all. I'm sorry… for being such an awful parent. You deserve better, you deserve to be happy…"

Grima felt silent. It was everything he had wanted to say, he just regretted not having said it much sooner. He would be happy if at least that had lifted a bit of weight from Marth's shoulders, but he couldn't know if that had actually been the right thing to do, or if he had somehow made things worse. He realized he was becoming anxious at Marth's lack of answer. He looked at him, and saw him staring back. His lips were tremblings.

"Tell me one thing." He asked. "Tell me why… why did you kill father…"

Grima had already expected that question, but the words, the memories, still felt sharp like a cut from a blade. He took a shaky breath to stop his nerves from taking control and told him about Grima, about the colonies, about the ritual.

"When it happened, I suddenly had hundreds of voices yelling at once inside my head. They were all fighting to drown me and to drown each other. I didn't know what was going on, and the random memory fragments I got from them didn't help my disorientation, but realized that I had to fight back or they'd finish me. I managed to win and get them under control… But when became aware of my surroundings again… Chrom was already dead. I wasn't fast enough."

"You… didn't want to kill him." Marth realized.

"No, but it happened regardless." Regret, guilt and pain permeated every word Grima said, and he was still unable to stare at his eyes, but kept talking. "You don't have to forgive me. I don't want you to. I don't deserve it. In fact, if you wish to, I'll let you end me with the Falchion once we're back in our world. It will be the safest thi—"

"No!"

Marth's cry stopped Grima's words. He stared, confused and startled, and saw he had taken out the mask, and was looking at him. His eyes were full of tears, some of them were already falling though his cheeks.

"I'm tired! Of losing everyone around me, of being alone, of… of…!" His voice cracked as he started sobbing. "I d-don't care… w-what the other Shepherd-ds think. I d-don't want… to lose the only… f-f-family I have left…!"

He threw himself towards Grima and hugged him, bursting into tears. He tensed up, not knowing how he should react. But Marth just hugged him tighter, and Grima slowly put his arms around him, realizing that was what he wanted. He stood there, holding him and softly stroking his shoulders for comfort while Marth cried his eyes out. Some time later, he showed signs of starting to calm down. But he kept hugging Grima, so he didn't try to separate until he showed he was ready.

"S-sorry…" Marth started, his face red from a mix of his tears and embarrassement. "I just—"

"Don't apologize." Grima stopped him.

He raised a hand and stroke Marth's long hair, letting it shine under de sunlight. It was exactly like Chrom's. It was beautiful. He got an idea.

"It's been many years since the last time, but… would you let me bride your hair again?" He asked.

Marth stared at him in surprise, but then a small smile formed on his face. "Of course."

Grima felt himself smiling softly as well. "Wait here. I'll go get a couple of things."

Grima left and came back half an hour later with a bunch of white and yellow flowers. He inmediately sit next to where Marth was and started combing his hair, putting the flowers as he made the braid.

"It may be a bit of a mess when you undo it to sleep, but…" He said in an apologetic tone, handing Marth a mirror he had found amongh his things on the tower so he could see it better.

He looked at his hair. He had a side braid with multiple flowers poking form it, and that went up around his head, with a couple adorning his upper side next to his tiara. Marth put back his mask, feeling a hunch, and and verified that the yellow flowers at the top of his head not only matched the tiara, but also the mask. The flowers didn't hid the mask and the mask didn't cover the flowers.

"I love it…" Marth said, staring intensely at his reflection.

"I'm glad…" Grima admited.

He really was.

The castle bells started ringing, signaling every hero living there it was time for lunch. Grima and Marth stared at the instruments for a few seconds before getting up.

"Well, I should be going, even if I go to eat later."

"Um… about that…" Marth said suddenly.

Grima looked back at him and he looked away. An intense blush was spreading through his face.  

"I-it's just… um…" He looked away. "Well… ah… um…it's… ah…last night… um…"

Grima realized he looked incredibly embarrassed, but strangely keen on telling him whatever he was trying to say. Then something clicked on Grima's brain. Oh, no.

"Y-you were… um… loud and… aaah… rumor has already spread… and…"

_Fuck._

* * *

Grima went back into his room to find Chrom still asleep on his bed. He sighted and got closer.

"How can you still be asleep? It's noon!" He groaned, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him to wake him up.

Chrom opened his eyes with a start, turning fast, searching for danger, only to see Grima standing in front of him. He laid down again, yawning. Some part of his brain realized how absurd was to not consider Grima a danger.

"Hey." Chrom said with a sheepish smile while winking. His throat was so sore his voice barely came out of his mouth.

"You have little more than an hour to get ready and go down to eat something." Grima's voice showed how unimpressed he was at the flirting attempt. "And there's something you should probably know."

Chrom's expression turned serious when he heard that. Grima stared at him for a few seconds, and then sighted while rolling his eyes.

It was actually ridiculous. Their yells last night had made it unable for everyone in that floor and some people under them to sleep. Alphonse, Kiran, Sharena, Anna, and Marth had ended up trying to play cards in the summoner's room while their magical shiny rectangle blasted strange music as loud as it could. Marth was mortified by his parents moans, while Sharena tried to assured him it was fine. Kiran had to physically stop Alphonse from getting out of the room to stop them once they started the fourth round, saying it was the best chance they coud have to stop Grima from being a walking bomb, and stabilize his emotions. Anna had to be stopped for different reasons. 

They had ended passing out at sunrise, and waking up a few hours later feeling like they had attended the most exhausting pyjama party of their lives.

"Several people heard us last night, and word has spread through the castle. It's very unlikely you'll be welcomed at the Shepherds table. The other Chrom will probably be particularly upset."

Chrom had a serious expression for a few seconds, and then nodded as if agreeing with something he had thought. "I'll deal with him." He rasped.

Grima raised an eyebrow, but decided he didn't want to know. He gave Chrom the vulnerary he had set up earlier, in case he woke up. "Drink this to help your throat. And for the love the gods, take a shower. Your wounds will get infected."

"Does the love of the gods include yours?" Chrom asked him with a smile.

"Not until you clean up." Hopefully that would get him to get up faster. It didn't; Chrom just smiled at him warmly. Grima had to touch his injured back to make him flinch in pain and run away towards the bathroom.

* * *

Chrom noticed how the usual racket in the dining room became much quieter when he entered the place and the door closed behind him. Altough no one was directly staring at him, he felt intensely watched. He became suddenly conscious about his body, briefly wondering if he had properly hidden the marks from last night under the armor and the clothes. Then he mentaly slapped himself. He didn't regret a single second he had been with Grima last night and pretty much everyone knew about it already. It didn't matter whether they could see the marks or not. If anything, it was better: a much clearer and aggresive declaration of intentions than his words could make. He wasn't going to turn Grima away like the rest. Everyone in there was on the same team, after all. It didn't matter with who he shared his private moments.

He mentally scolded himself after thinking that. It wasn't that easy, and he knew it.

He approached the table with the Shepherds and greeted them with a warm smile. No one answered and most looked away, but he did notice Frederick stared at him and nodded in a polite greet. It wasn't cold like the Exalt had expected. It looked like he wanted to be more open about it, but there was something stopping him.

That something got up and closer to him. The other Chrom's face was red with rage and embarassement. For a second the Exalt thought of how young he seemed. Then he suffered a great temptation to get rid of his scarf and proudly show all the wounds on his skin, to show how little he cared about his younger's self opinion. He scolded himsef again. The other Chrom was mortified about the whole situation, shaming him in public wouldn't help.

"Traitors like you aren't welcomed here." Chrom said.

Well, it sure as hell had become something tempting to do. He half lamented the marks in Grima were gone already by the time he woke up. He would have tried to convince him to strip himself from his robes in the middle of the canteen for everyone to see.

Still, Emmeryn had always tried to teach him about the diplomatic way, and Chrom had tried to follow her steps the best he could. He ignored his first instincts and tried to talk with him.

"Traitor how?" Despite the vulnerary, Chrom had a bit of trouble saying that. His throat was dying. He didn't feign ignorance as much as tried to hear what exactly was he being accused of. Unlike Marth, he hadn't actually attacked any Shepherd.

The other Chrom blushed intensely while he pressed his lips. "You know why." He replied. He looked like he was trying to avoid saying exactly what.

Too bad for him, because the Exalt didn't care. He crossed his arms. "I don't see what's wrong about spending the night with my husband." He rasped.

Every attempt to pretend normalcy at the Shepherds table turned into a petrified surprise. One person choked on their food. At least three people from other tables choked as well. Chrom would have sworn he had heard Grima chuckle for half a second. Both Robins had become intensely red, but Chrom couldn't confirm much else, since his stare was locked on his younger self's. The other Chrom was pale and looked as if he had punched him in the guts, which stranged him a little. Surely marrying Robin wasn't such a bad prospect, was it?

The younger Chrom opened and closed his mouth several times, as if he was trying to find something to say but was unable to. He finally settled at the most important part. "If you insist on associating with that monster, you will not come back here."

The Exalted's face twisted with rage for a second, and barely managed to stopp himself from yelling how that "monster" had a name, a name that was from someone very close to him too. But Grima didn't want the Shepherds to know about him, and although Chrom didn't understand why, he had agreed to respect that decision. And there was an important reason why he didn't mind not being able to stay with the other Shepherds.

"Very well, I won't sit here anymore. At least this way I can be a proper father for all my children, including Marth." He replied.

That had hurt. He saw the flash of fury crossing the other Chrom's eyes, how he tensed his body ready to land a punch on his face. He was stopped by the male Robin, of all people. The tactician grabbed his arm and told him to stop. The Exalt didn't stay to see how things developed; he turned his back to them and kept walking until he reached the table with the Askrians. He sat close to Grima, who greeted him with a hum and kept eating as if he had just noticed his presence.

"That's an interesting way to deal with things." Grima said when he saw him sit, regardless of the indiference he had tried to feing.

Chrom accepted the food a servant girl offered to him and turned back to him. "Disappointed?"

Grima gave him a knowing smile. The first smile anyone at the canteen had seen him make; and they couldn't stop staring.

"Not really." He admited.

"You're a terrible influence." Chrom declared, smiling back despite knowing the situation was too serious to act like a couple of teenagers in love, but unable to stop himself.

"You're welcome."

An odd silence fell over the canteen when they stopped talking. There were a couple of hundred people there, yet not a single one seemed to be talking with their friends. Grima internally sighted at how obvious it was they had been listening. They knew nothing of stealth, and the thiefs and assassins in there dissapointed him greatly.

The silence was broken once again when the door opened. Everyone stared at once, startled by the sudden noise. Marth walked in. Mask no longer on his face, with the brightest smile anyone had seen him expressing effortlessly showing on his face, and multiple beautiful flowers braided along his hair, he moved forward until he reached his place at the Askrian table, and sat next to Chrom and Grima. The Exalt instantly complimented his hairstyle, which he shyly confessed Grima had made for him that morning. The Fell Dragon dismissed it waving a hand; it had been nothing and he could ask for another braid any moment.

It was the most confusing day the heroes had lived in months.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't find a good place to cut this in two, so this chapter is VERY LONG. The first part of the chapter is kinda out of place... but there wasn't a good place to add it, I think...
> 
> Also, college has started again and it's killing me, so I haven't edited this chapter as much as the others. Sorry! But I hope you still like it.

Chrom sometimes woke up un the middle of the night due to strange noises, only to find Robin in front of him, showing him his back and holding the Ylissean ring in his cupped hands while he cried and mumbled apologies to the metal band. The first time he had seen it, Chrom had tried to confort him, but Robin had reacted terribly, pushing him away and yelling about him not being _his_ Chrom and how that was none of his business. Since then, Chrom pretended to be asleep and randomly moved until he was half-hugging Robin again.

Sometimes it worked, and the former tactician's tears stopped, his breathing became calmer and he ended up relaxing against Chrom's touch, kissing the ring before putting it again, making sure he wouldn't lose it, and then turning and hugging Chrom while hiding his face on his chest.

Most of the time, Robin was inconsolable.

* * *

Grima was reading a book for the first time in years. Lazily sat on the window while the sunlight fell upon him, he turned the pages almost one after the other. He hadn't realized how much he had missed reading until Chrom had appeared out of nowhere with a book from the library, saying he was sure he'd like it. Grima suspected he had asked the Morgans what books had the Robins enjoyed most, since they frequently went to the library. And the Morgans were the only Shepherds that still happily chated with Chrom even after knowing of his relationship with Grima himself. Although most other Shepherds weren't angry as much as confused with the situation, things were quite awkward.

Grima stared intensely at the letters writen on the pages. The book was a summary of the strategies that had been done in a previous heroic era, when another summoner had appeared to help Askr survive the war. It was absorbing. Having so many people from different places and with different habilities lead to incredibly creative tactics that used everyone's strong points. Apparently, there had even been a special squad made with dancers and singers as a support for other teams. How had he not thought of that?

He went to take notes only to remember he didn't have any paper or ink ready. He frowned and went to the desk, searching for some, and left the book on the table.

It was then when he felt it.

A small group of colonies of thanatophages was present in Askr. He felt the conection with the bugs through the ones on his own body. Those colonies were not in a deep slumber, almost impossible to notice even for him until the day of their awakening, like the ones on the Robins bodies. The bugs were aggresive and hungry, and he felt how they tried to extend their control over him, as if he was a random risen.

He fought back, shuting down the link among them. Everything was quiet inside his mind for a few seconds. He stared at the air for several seconds, realizing exactly what those colonies were.

He went to the window and jumped through it, runnung through the roofs at a speed rarely seen on him. He went next to the training grounds, which were full of people fighting, and right next to the summoning garden, separated by a thick wall. He got to the edge of the roof, summoned his power and shoot it towards the furthest wall. destroying a big part.

Several yells and gasps of surprised could be heard under him, and most heroes turned their heads towards the hole on the wall and towards him. Grima just let himself fall from the roof, hoping he would recover by the time he hit the ground. It took him a couple of seconds more to get up that he had calculated, and someone aproached him.

"Get out of my way!" He roared, pushing the person away, not even bothering to check who they were. He got up and started running towards the hole he had made as fast as he could. The new colonies were excited. That was bad. He had to hurry.

Most heroes were so puzzled by his strange and sudden behaviour, they didn't know how to react, but Ike, Lyn and Lukas stared at each other and silently nodded. Then they followed him into the summoning garden without saying a word.

Grima finally saw the summoner, next to a pink haired girl mage and a girl in an orange armor. In front of them, a woman with white hair and Plegian clothes stood without saying anything, her eyes emtpy of life. His whole body screamed at once, and he didn't think twice before summoning his power, starting to pour purple flames everywhere, and jumping to shove the summoner and their guardians out of the way.

The purple fire that hit him completely was the most painful thing he had felt in his life. When he managed to reopen his eyes, the girl in front of him yelled. She became covered by a small and phantasmagorical siluete of Grima made of purple fire, and started flying away, roaring and flying erraticaly over the castle.

Grima raised his head to look at her and realized he was actually surrounded by people. The heroes training had followed him to the summoning grounds and stared at him and at the flying giant semi-transparent dragon that was yelling over their heads. Lukas aproached the summoner.

"What happened?!"

"I…" Kiran gave a fast glance at the Robins, who were looking at the flying Grima as if they were going to have a panic attack; and then at Grima, who simply stared at her, pensive. "… guess I summoned the other Grima… But I don't know why she reacted like that."

"If we get up there we can fight her and stop her with a Falchion." The Exalted Chrom aproached them, his white armor on, with a serious look on his face.

"That won't work." Grima replied calmly, still staring at the dragon above them. "That body isn't solid. You'll just fall through."

He frowned. Her yelling, her erratic flying. If it was an act and she wanted to flee, she would have gotten far away already. If it wasn't an act and wanted to destroy, she would have attacked already; not to mention it looked like she was having trouble transforming properly, was barely a fortieth of the real size, and lacked a pair of wings. "Somethings wrong."

"What can we do then?! She could be a threat!"

Grima didn't answer inmediately. Instead, he raised his left hand at her. He concentrated. He could feel the colonies inside the other Grima body. They were in an extremely caotic state, which wasn't complete surprise for him. Using big ammounts of power usually had that kind of effect. He tried to control one of the colonies above him and command it to go west. The dragon slowly strated flying in the direction for a few seconds.

Then, a sharp purple thorn appeared on Grima's arm. He flinched in pain. The flying dragon hadn't like having someone controlling her and had retaliated attacking his colonies and making the roots go out of control. Grima stopped the control he inflicted on the colony, grabbed the thorn on his arm and pulled it off. Then, to the horror of everyone around him, he _ate_ it.

"Alright, I can do this alone, which will save us time and resources," He anounced, stopping muching on the root a few seconds to gulp "but I need someone who can fly to take me up there." He pointed a finger at the other Grima.

"Why did you eat that?!" Chrom was unable to hide the revulsion he felt from his voice.

"To avoid unnecesary contamination from the bugs. Just in case." He explained. "I need someone to take me up." He repeated, growing impatient with all the bewildered expressions around him.

There was silences and nervous glances at both him and the flying girl on the sky from most heroes around him. Then Morgan stepped closer and stared at him with a scared but determined look. "I will."

Grima frowned at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Very well. I'll wait here."

She left for her pegasus, ignoring the Shepherds and other heroes who told her to wait from a better idea from someone else. Chrom got closer to Grima.

"I'll try to convince someone to come with me and follow you as a reinforcement and—"

"You will all stay around the castle and not move until I'm done." Grima replied and stared at him with a look that showed he wasn't going to budge.

"How can you be so sure you won't need any help?" Chrom protested. "You did need help at the fortress."

"The situation is different." He simply replied.

Chrom started to become frustrated at Grima's unwillingness to explain, but Morgan arrived at that moment flying on the pegasus. Grima mounted behind her and yelled to the heroes that no one would follow him until he was done.

"How can we know when you'll be done?" Lyn asked.

He stared at her with a cold glint in his eyes. "You will."

They both left, Morgan encouraging her mount to fly as fast as possible towards the flying dragon of purple smoke that roared above them. Grima raised his hands and small pufs of smoke appeared from them. He tried to focus as much as he could, and the dragon above them turned left and kept flying in that direction. Grima stopped the control, trying to hold of the roots inside his body so they wouldn't hurt Morgan.

"Um…" Morgan started, not knowing how to ask him what he was doing exactly.

"Controlling her constantly will be exhausting, and I just want to get her as far from the castle and other settlements as possible." He explained when he noticed her curiosity. "Can you see that mountain range in the distance?" He pointed at the mountains. "How long will it take us to cross them flying?"

 Morgan looked back at him for a second, surprised, and then stared back at the sharp peeks covered with snow. She pressed her lips, thinking. "More than a day."

"And can your pegasus get us there without a break?"

"I… can try." She assured him.

"I don't want you to try. If you need a break, we'll take it. But I need to know in advance when will you need it to think properly about our next moves."

He stared at her with a serious but calm expression, waiting for her to answer. Morgan realized he wasn't just making sure the other Grima wouldn't get away, but he was actually concerned about her and her animal overexerting themselves. She looked around and thought.

"We can go until a little before the mountains. We'll be fine it we rest a couple of hours before crossing them." She stopped talking and looked at him, worried. "Assuming we don't go much further through the valley next."

"That won't be necessary." He assured her. "Food?"

"I didn't think of bringing any." She admited. She didn't think they would have to fly for so long, but Grima seemed determined to get them as far as possible from other people.

"Then you'll have to be without it until the others come. Or fly back to them."

The valley across the mountains was one of the biggest and emptiest places in Askr, and not far from the border with Nifl. The cold, furious winds and strong river currents were uninviting to people, and nobody lived inside it, preferring to make settlements surrounding the mountains that delimited the area. The valley wasn't too wide, but it was as long as Askr itself. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best place for Grima to stop the other Grima without accidentally crushing a village and its people.

They both flew in silence, and made a stop next to the mountains while Grima sometimes raised his arm and made the flying dragon change the direction of her flight. Morgan asked Grima to wake her up un a couple of hours when they dismounted. Grima nodded, and soon turned his attention back to the flying dragon above them. She was still roaring and flying erraticaly. Grima didn't like that at all.

When Morgan woke up, she was startled seeing the sun had started to set.

"It's been almost four hours! Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" She complained, rushing to the pegasus and making sure he was ready to fly again.

"You needed to rest." Grima just answered.

Morgan frowned, but didn't reply. She mounted the animal and let Grima get behind her. The pegasus took off, refreshed, and got above the mountains in a few minutes. Grima forced the flying dragon to fly over the valley itself.

"I need you to fly higher than her, and get closer to the head. Alright?"

Morgan's grip on the reins tightened in fear just thinking about getting closer to the dragon made of purple smoke, but nodded, determined. She did as told, making sure her animal didn't panic due to the proximity with such a monstruous being that seemed uncapable of stopping roaring. Grima stared quietly at the phantasmagorical purple dragon under them. He saw a small humanoid figure close to the nape and guessed that was the human body. Grima started getting ready, and purple smoke began to pour from his body. Morgan got startled when she saw that, but Grima wasn't paying attention to her, still staring at the dragon under them.

They flew in silence a few more seconds.

"Morgan." Grima suddenly said. Morgan flinched, startled, and slowly turned to him. He didn't look at her.

"Yes…?"

"I'm going to jump." He explained, slowly. "Once I do that, I want you to fly away as fast as you can towards the other side of the mountains. And don't look back."

Morgan wanted to protest, to ask him what was he going to do if he fell to the ground without reaching the human body of the other Grima or whatever he was planning. But something in his voice tone, unusually strict, told her want to get out there as soon as possible without complaining. Grima didn't look like he was worried about needing more help than what he had gotten. She nodded slightly, with a pale expression.

Grima breathed slowly and then let himself fall form the winged horse. Morgan inmediately took the reins and made Hisanha turn around and fly away as fast as she could. Grima simply released his power. Fully, unconstrained; extending beyond the boundaries of that weak human body.

When he opened his eyes again, the pegasus of his daughter was so small he could barely see it flying to his left above one of his enourmous wings. He saw through his six eyes the Askrian castle at the distance, so small he coud take it full with his jaws and crush it without thinking. The few hundred heroes gathered around the walls of the building were like ants trying to protect their anthill form an anteater. Useless, meaningless. Grima's enourmous power and size could end them without effort. The hundreds of voices inside his body screamed for it, but Grima shut them down. He had more important things to do.

He made sure he could still feel the colonies of the other Grima under him. Then he started folding his enormous wings, so long they reached beyond the Aksrian castle, as well as his tail, as if trying to take up as little space as it was possible with a body the size of a country.

And then he just fell, crushing the smaller Grima's body with his own against the ground. His enormous size crashing against the ground made a small earthquake. A few seconds later, after it stopped, he moved his tail to put it around his body, kept the six wings folded tightly and rested his head over his back, still trying to minimalize the area he occupied. Then he just remained there, doing nothing but looking at the sky turning dark and the snowed peeks around him. His head was actually higher than most mountains.

A deafening silence had fallen in the Askrian castle. It was one thing to know of the stories of the Shepherds that had defeated Grima (or will defeat it). It was a very different thing to realize exactly how _colossal_ the Fell Dragon's size actually was. Despite de distance, they coud see the upper part of the head, along with three glowing red eyes, and horns seveal mountains long, standing above the snowed peeks. Not to mention the wing that had briefly covered the castle before, huge enough to destroy it and the surrounding area just by letting it drop over the building. Most heroes were shooting nervous glances at the Shepherds, who looked between shocked and and about to panic. Even the Chrom that had already defeated Grima looked paler than usual.

But no matter how much time passed, Grima did nothing but stay there beyond the mountain range while the sky got darker and darker. At one point, the shiny red eyes turned off, and everyone lost visibility of the mountain range. The summoner realized he had fallen asleep. Or, at least, made an eyelidless version of closing his eyes.

Kiran cleared their throat and looked at the heroes. "Ok. I… think we should rest for today and prepare to go there tomorrow. He hasn't done anything in a while so I guess we can aproach now…"

Chrom then understood why Grima hadn't wanted reinforcements with him. He had wanted to avoid accidentally crushing them with his body size if they were too close to him.

* * *

A group specially prepared and made up of a little more than thirty heroes had marched for three days when they saw Morgan aproaching them as fast as she could manage. She looked awfully tired and dismounted her pegasus to aproach the summoner faster that they could react.

"I'm hungry!" She complained. "I've been trying to forage something around this place but there isn't much food in the snowed mountains!"

Sharena guided her to the food wagon and offered her some leftovers from last dinner. The pegasus rider chomped on them before the princess could ask if she wanted to heat them.

"I'm saved!" She declared once she finished eating them. Then she stole a peach from a close barrel and bite it as well with a smile.

"Are you… alright?" The other Morgan, who had gone to make her company, asked. Despite everything, seeing again the dragon of his nighmares had shaken him, and was worried about his sister.

"I am now!" She declared. "What do people in these villages even live of? There's almost nothing to eat in this place!" She complained.

"The surrounded fields are good for sheeps and cows, so they mostly live of cattle." Alphonse explained, looking worriedly at her.

"That explains why half the things we saw were cows. No wonder the game got so boring so fast…" She pouted, staring at the peach as if it was its fault.

"What game? And with who?" Chrom asked her, confused.

"'I spy'! And with Grima, of course. We were getting really bored of waiting for you."

An incredulous silence fell on the temporary camp they had hastily made upon her arrival.

"You… you played 'I spy' with _Grima_ …" Gaius wanted to make sure he was hearing right.

Morgan crossed her arms defensively and blushed in embarassement for playing something as childish as that. "Well, yes! There wasn't much else to do there!"

The camp quietly stared at her, still having trouble processing a dragon bigger than mountains and destroyer of worlds would agree to do something like that. The summoner ended up coughing to break the silence.

"And… um… you said you were waiting for us?"

"Oh, yes." She looked at them. "He actually told me to bring some back up now beyond the mountain range. And wants you to go there. And wants me to tell him when we'll be ready to cross the mountain and get inside the valley." She informed.

She didn't have more news to tell, and she did look physically and mentaly fine, despite the tiredness, so Kiran decided they would set up camp there until the next day and then continue the march. When she heard it, Morgan looked the happiest she had in days at the chance of proper rest, and quickly searched for a quiet spot on the closest wagon she could find. She fell asleep instantly.

They got to the slop of the mountains the next day, and Morgan took her pegasus to quickly fly up to the peaks. The heroes saw how the red eyes of the dragon head they could see above suddenly change their position and lower themselves a little. He was staring at them, and they felt a shiver of terror crawling their backs at being scrutinzed by such a monster. The head actually moved and elevated, pointing upwards with its mouth while the six eyes became fully visible for everyone to see. Grima was watching them. Every hero drew their weapon instinctively, but the dragon didn't pay attention to them. Then the head slowly turned and rotated until it rested over the peeks. Morgan flew around it and landed on it, in front of the six eyes. The red glowing lights moved to focus on her.

" _I can't believe you're so slow."_ The Fell Dragon complained with boredom with a voice so loud everyone at the base of the mountain could hear him clearly.

He got quiet for a while, seemingly listening to what Morgan was telling him, but her voice got lost with the distance.

" _That's an excuse. They have flying mounts, they could have distributed the weight and come here in half the time."_

"Damn, he's right." Kiram mumbled under their breath.

Morgan said something else to him. " _Whatever. Cross the mountain tomorrow as soon as you can. I'm going to sleep."_ The Fell Dragon declared.

The pegasus rider flew away from the head and Grima moved carefully to rest it again over his body. Then the lights on his eyes turned of, showing he was asleep. Morgan arrived at the shocked camp a few moments later and informed them of what they essentially had just heard.

"Oh. I wonder if he knows how loud his voice actually is…" She mumbled aloud.

The next day, everyone with a pegasus or a wyvern helped infantry units to cross the mountains. The summoner decided it could be better to leave the horseriders and a couple of Falchion users at the other side of the mountain range in case things got out of hand. Everyone from the Awakening world insisted on crossing.

They all gathered at the base of the other side of the mountains, not too close from the colossal dragon that simply watched them walk around. They stared in at him in tension. Morgan then yelled they were ready.

Grima's body started to emit purple smoke everywhere. Some yells of surprise and alarm appeared from the heroes in front of him, but he ignored them. The smoke got so dense and abundant it covered his whole body. Several minutes later, it dissapeared, and only his human form remained in front of them.

He slowly opened his eyes and stratched his head, frowning for a while, making sure his agitated colonies stayed in place as much as possible. Then he turned his back at them and walked away. He stopped after several steps, crouched to grab something, and turned back to them. He stopped walking at a cautious distance from the heroes in front of him and stared at the summoner. He raised an arm, his hand holding a grey orb, showing it to Kiran. The summoner gasped and nooded, and Grima threw the sphere at him.

"Resummon her here." He ordered them. "I don't think she'll act like an idiot again, but it will be less risky than at the castle."

Kiran nodded and stepped forward a couple of steps, loading the orb on Brediablik. Grima pointed a spot close to himself and unleashed a small part of his power, recreating a small dragon head of purple smoke like Chrom had seen him do on their first mision together. It looked like a joke compared to what had happened mere seconds ago.

The summoner grabbed their weapon properly, aimed at the indicated place and shot. The grey orb shone brightly and broke once it touched the ground, liberating a human siluete. Grima didn't waste time and inmediately threw the dragon head at her with its jaws opened, pinning her to the ground. The girl started yelling and squirming almost instantly, pouring dark fumes without restrain. Grima gritted his teeth. She was resisting far more that he had expected.

"I thought you were clever! Can't you read the situation? Showtime is over! Drop this shit, your annoying!" He yelled at her.

The colonies suddenly roaring inside his head were the only warning he got before she yelled and exploeded in purple fire. The sudden attack surprised Grima, who stumbled back a couple of steps while trying to get a hold of the roots that started to spread inside his body. He blackedout a couple of seconds before he managed to regain control of his body again. A sharp pain on his chest and his back told him a root was piercing his body, but he ignored it. He quickly gathered some power and shot her down before she could escape again. He used the phantasmagorical head to grab her and stop her from running.

"Are you deaf?! I told you to stop!" He yelled, getting closer. "Why are you even doing this shit? You can't understand what I'm telling you or what?"

The girl yelled at him, not showing sings of hearing anything he had just said. She just kept trying to free herself and yelling.

Grima frowned. She was nothing like the person she was supossed to be. She was like a wild beast, a furious animal that showed no sign of intelect or comprehesion. Just an infinite rage and need for destruction. He could understand her feeling upset, but this was ridiculous. It was like she wasn't in control of her body anymore.

Grima's eyes wided in realization. He became paralized while emotions and memoried flooded his mind. The years of guilt over what he had done and the fury that kept him going regardless, the sadness, the despair. He had chosen to endure everything as a fair punishment for the destruction he had done. He had agreed to suffer for as long as he lived as a punishment, only to have another version of him summoned as well and realized that _she had run away._

His body reacted before he realized what he was doing. He slapped her face as hard as he could.

The heroes watched, strucked dumb by the sudden reaction, as Grima grabbed her from the robes with an expression twisted by pure rage.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! How can you be such a fucking coward! You disgust me!! Get the fuck out and face what you've done!!"

The girl replied with more incoherent yelling, but Grima was done with that. He slapped her again to shut her up.

"I'm talking with her, not you! _Fuck. Off!!_ "

He slapped her again, and again. She was supossed to be him! How dared she not face the consecuences of what she had done to the world? How dared she just give up on everything! He closed his hand to form a fist and punch her in the face. And then he did it again, and again. He couldn't stand it, watching someone that was suposed to be him doing something so cowardly! How dared she not suffer for what she had done?! How dared she choose to not go through what he had?!

The third time he tried to punch her something grabbed his arm. He turned his head at lightning speed, pouring smoke and flames as if he was about to transform right there, more than ready to instantly obliterate whoever was trying to stop him. He saw Chrom on his white armor staring seriously at him, grabbing him tightly so he couldn't keep hurting her anymore. Grima slowly grew more conscious of what was going on around him, realizing several thorns were sprouting from his body and that the girl was suspiciously silent and cowering slightly while carefully watching him, as if she had become scared of him.

"Enough!" Chrom's voice sounded extraordinarily clear, and Grima realized he had been close to lose himself to his rage and submit to the colonies desires of destruction. He still felt more than willing to beat her up, however. "You're not helping! What is wrong?!"

When he heard that, Grima's expresion became so enraged again Chrom was sure for a second he would kill him. But instead, the fire and flames form his body extinguished, the thorns slowly got back inside of his body, and he pulled his arm to free himself from Chrom's grab. He looked again at the girl at his side and then at Chrom.

"It's not her! That's whats wrong with this bullshit!" He replied.

Chrom stared back, puzzled. "What… do you mean?"

"It's not her! It's not Robin! It's one of the fucking colonies!! They overrun her and are controling her body!"

Chrom looked at her and frowned. "So she's… gone? She lost to them?"

"No, she let them win!" He corrected, spitting hatred with every word. "The colonies are annoying and stubborn, but not hard to keep under control after you learned a couple of tricks. If she's not here talking with us is because she doesn't want to!"

"But why would she let them in control? It doesn't seem too—"

"Suicide, Chrom." Grima cut him off. "It's not that hard."

The Exalt looked at the girl, who growled at them like a cornered animal. He was startig to feel pity for her.

"And is taking her out really the best option?" He asked, concerned.

"She's a menace to everything that lives and doesn't. We are _not_ leaving a colony in control of her body, Chrom."

"Hi!" A sudden joyful voice next to them startled them. They turned fast to see both Morgans very close to them with a huge smile on their faces. Huge and fake, Grima noticed. They seemed very annoyed. "What are you talking about?"

"What _exactly_ are you talking about?" The other Morgan asked.

Both Grima and Chrom stared at them and realized they had heard everything they had said. They slowly turned their heads to look at the heroes behind the Morgans. Their puzzled expressions and the summoner's nervousness clearly told them every hero had heard everything.

"Uh… Well… Um…" Chrom started, nervously looking at Grima first and at the Shepherds in front of him second.

Grima rolled his eyes. Whatever.

"Breaking news!" He walked towards the Shepherds and extended his arms. "What you know as 'Grima' doesn't exist because that thing is pretty much a concept! It's abstract! Just a bunch of mutated bugs being very annoying and trying to control my body! But I didn't let them! So, hi! I'm Robin! It's been a fucking while, hasn't it?"

The Shepherds stared at him in silence. They looked at each other and then at the Robins, unsure of what to think of that.

"Can you prove—" The girl Robin started.

"Chrom almost killed Vaike with a dish he cooked, Lissa doesn't know the constellations, Frederick actually hates training, Sully got an almost lethal diahrrea trying to lose weigh, Virion's fortune telling is him just being observant, Stahl is so average Miriel actually considered him a field of study, Vaike doesn't even know what the word 'evidence' means, Miriel deliberately put herself in mortal danger several times for her studies, Sumia pretends to be the characters from the books she reads, Kellam is invisible because of his family, Donnel wears the pot to hide his hair, Lon'qu likes playing house, Ricken learned butter sculpting, Maribelle likes tea with blood from bears, Panne got caught in Donnel's traps multiple times,   Gaius has a tatoo from jail, Cordelia's crush on Chrom it's so bad she can't stay close to him without fainting, Gregor is actually his brother and we never met the real 'Gregor', Nowi can't swim, Libra tried to speak with a mole, Tharja curses illnesses to help everyone in secret, Olivia cries when seasons change, Cherche tamed Minerva hitting her with her cleric staff, Henry was raised by wolves, and both Robins would literally bang every Shepherd in existence given the chance. " Grima said, completely indifferent to the various degrees of embarassement the Shepherds in front of him were showing and their yells of protest and shame. The Robins in particular seemed to be trying to disappear, hiding their faces the best they could with the hood of their robes. "I would continue with the children, but I believe that's enough."

Chrom just stared at him in disbelief. "How can you even know all that?!"

"Because I'm the best tactician, and that means I have to notice things quickly." He replied with a smug smile.

The Exalt breathed deeply and shook his head. So now he admited being a tactician? Perhaps he hadn't let the colonies control his body, but the girl behind them wasn't the only one running away. He decided to keep the thoughts to himself, however.

But there was something else Chrom realized. "Did you seriously asked me to keep it secret from them only to just say it now?!"

Grima pointed at the other Grima. "We have kind of a situation here, Chrom!"

The girl snarled at them at that moment. Grima made an exasperated face.

"Why did you even want me to keep it secret?!" Chrom yelled at him.

"Because I'm an stubborn shit, Chrom. We've been though this, you're married to a Robin. You should know this."

Unbelievable. Chrom put his hands over his face. "I can't believe I'm having this argument with you in this place."

The tactician rolled his eyes. "Why? Because we are acting like the married couple we actually are, multidimensional worlds aside?"

Chrom decided it was time to get back to the topic.

"So, to recap… We have to make her control her body again or she'll be constantly like this?"

"Yes." Grima confirmed.

"And how do we do that?"

"I have no idea."

The colonies inside Grima's body screamed again. He gritted his teeth while his vision went dark for an instant. Then he grabbed Chrom by his arm and threw him behind him. A couple of seconds later he got hit by an inmense wave of purple fire. He groaned in pain while he made sure he absorbed the full blow. It was incredibly painful; her strengh was truly absurd. But of course, the same thing could be said of him.

His knees trembled and his body felt slightly rigid. He already had a small blackout. The colonies were extremely agitated by the other Grima's. He was running out of time; they needed a plan.

"Grima!" The Morgans tried the get his attention, looking determined. "No, Robin… Uh… Dad?" They tried.

"Whatever." Grima resigned himself to a fate in which his real identity was no longer a secret. The Morgans looked extremely happy by his answer.

"So if we make the colonies get further inside… Could she get out by force?" The male Morgan asked.

Grima used his power again to pin the girl against the ground and tried to think while she kept yelling like a rabid beast. "It should. Worst case scenario, she'll be knocked out for some weeks, which is not even that bad."

"But how do we do that?" The Morgan girl bit her lip and sideglanced at the woman pinned to the ground.

"The colonies only have basic but strong emotions; fear should probably do it. We have to stab her with the Falchion."

"What?!" Chrom stepped back, not happy with the proposal.

"Not yours." _Chrom, dead, with an electricity dagger stuck deeply in his chest._ Grima frowned slightly at the memory. "It will probably have the oposite effect. But…" _A young man with a sword made from Naga's fang jumping high and stabbing him in the head._ "Marth and Alm should probably do it. Specially Alm…"

The memories he got from the colonies related to that hero were specially traumatic. They wouldn't like feeling his sword on them again. He looked at the Morgans. "Bring them here as fast as you can. They're our best bet."

The Morgans nodded and went back with the group of heroes that were reunited there. Since everyone had heard the conversation about Grima, it took little to convince someone to help. Cordelia quickly nodded at them and jumped on her pegasus, flying with Morgan to the other side of the mountains.

Chrom aproached Grima again. "Um… And why I specifically can't do this?"

Grima rolled his eyes. "Gods, seriously? I thought you had actually started to think. You, me, a backstab, lots of death after it. Why do you even think she's like this in the first place?"

"Oh… Right…"

The pegasi riders reappeared a few minutes later from the other side of the mountains, bringing the requested heroes with them. They dismounted and aproached the trio apart from the rest of the order, Alm greeting Lukas while he walked.

"We were told you needed our help, so—" Alm started while Marth greeted his descendant.

"Yeah, cut her." Grima interrupted, pointing at the other Grima.

Both heroes stared at him and then at each other. They finally looked at Chrom, who looked away, slightly uncomfortable.

"What? Why?" Marth asked worriedly.

"Questions later, we don't have a lot of time." Grima replied, aproaching the girl, who looked warily at him. He  suddenly punched her in the face. The girl groaned and stepped back but, most importantly, stopped her flames and smoke for a few seconds in surprise. Grima took that chance to grab her arms and hold her in place, putting her body in front of him like a shield.

Chrom nodded seriously at the men in front of them. They doubted for a few seconds, but they had seen the dragon girl flying around the castle and the inmense dragon laying beyond the mountains. It probably wasn't the best time for questions. They both drew his swords and aproached the Grimas.

The first cut, a soft touch to the arm that barely drew blood due to the thickness of her clothes, made her yell as if they had cut her arm instead. Grima felt the colonies revolving strongly, and told them to keep going. They seemed to doubt when they saw the pain she was feeling, but no other hero around them told them to stop, so they striked again. And again, and again. The blade fell on her, not even deeply or with malice, but hurting all the same.

Grima realized he hadn't thought of the effect the proximity Falchions and the altered colonies would have on him. He had to fight to keep her in place while fighting against the fear the colonies were extending through his body. The yells were giving him a headache and his arms ached from keeping her in place. One of them hurt like hell for some reason; and Chrom looked like he was going to throw up. Had he been cut too by accident and had yelled? That would explain it, but he wasn't sure. His consciousness was becoming fragmented fast due to how unstable the colonies were turning, fighting for the control over his body and trying to get away from the blades.

Grima would be unable to say if the process took seconds or hours, but after a while, the girl became limp on his arms, dropping her head. Grima had to keep holding her strongly so she wouldn't fall to the ground, but the temptation of letting her slam her face against the rocks was strong.

"Holy shit." He felt awfully tired. "Is it finally over? Will you behave like a fucking person already or what?" He asked her, still holding her unconscious body.

Both Alm and Marth stopped their attacks and stepped back. Silence had fallen in the valley, but the heroes around them actually started opening their eyes to look. Many had been unable to stand the torture inflicted in front of them and had refused to see it, specially the Robins themselves. At least got the support of their children.

The girl suddenly lift her head fast and slammed it again's Grima's face. He groaned and let her go, staggering back while he hold his bleeding nose and crouched in pain. The girl stepped away from him and the Falchion heroes, and looked around warily for a few seconds. Once she detected the Shepherds, stood straight while smiling smugly at them.

"What, worms? Admiring the one that will bring your end?"

There was silence for a couple of seconds.

"Y'know? This loses a lot of strengh now that we know Bubbles is basically pretending." Gaius stated. A couple of Shepherds around him nodded.

Robin's smile dropped, not expecting that answer at all. But her attention was stolen when she felt someone strongly grabbing her by the arm and forcefully turning her around. She found herself staring at a male version of her that looked awfully pissed. A version that was leaking purple smoke like her.

"Listen to me." He growled, glaring at her. "If you ever do something like this again, I will make the colonies tear the heart out of your chest. Am I clear?"

She noticed something… no, someone was comanding the colonies inside her body. Her right hand started moving until three purple spikes sprouted from it, making her whine in pain. She stepped back, grabbing her arm, and realizing it had been him. She glared back, but didn't reply, becoming aware of how powerful he was.

Grima ignored her, knowing she wouldn't do anything stupid for a while, and aproached Chrom. He talked before the Exalt could ask anything.

"Just in case, don't let the Robin's touch me. In fact, don't let anyone but you, the other Chrom or the Lucinas touch me." He ordered.

A few seconds later his body got covered with purple spikes standing out from every part of his body, and he fell to the ground, motionless and soundless, and as rigid as a statue.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Grima slowly opened his eyes. His head was finally quiet. He sat up, and realized he was on his room again and that he wasn't alone. Marth was staring at him, sat on a chair next to the bed. Grima frowned, confused.

"Why are you here?"

Marth seemed to tense up when he heard him talk. His child reached for the sword at his hips, but kept staring at him.

"Father and I agreed to keep turns watching over you." He explained.

To help if there was need… and to attack if it was necessary, he understood. Grima nodded. He was actually glad they had even forsesighted the worst possible outcome.

"Well, I've been out for four days. Has something happened?" He slowly got up and streched. He didn't feel any root impeding his movements anywhere around his body. The colonies were extraordinarily quiet as well. Perhaps being stabbed with the Falchion once in a while wasn't that bad.

"How do you know that? You were unconscious." Marth asked, puzzled.

"I wasn't unconscious, just busy. Mentally busy. The colonies were upset, I was making sure they would stay down and stopped trying to control me." He explained while he put on the purple robes.

"Oh. I… see…" He answered, quietly.

Grima looked at him. He stared back, but the Fell Dragon had the feeling he was looking away behind his mask. His fists were clenched and his lips were tightly pressed. He was tense.

"Are you alright?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

Marth flinched at the question. "Y-yeah… It's just… What happened there… It was…"

Traumatic probably barely began to describe it. Not only had Grima transformed into the dragon of his nightmares, but he had also insisted that what had basically been a torture session was the only way to make things _right,_ an event in which Grima himself had gotten hurt as well and ended up like a pincushion _._ Marth had started to visibly shake. 

Grima slowly opened his arms, inviting him. "I'm fine now. Really. I'm sorry you had to see that."

His child accepted the offer and threw himself onto his arms, hugging him tightly while trembling in fear and anxiety. "F-father was… s-s-so upset… when y-you fainted…" He managed to say, despite the shaking and fearful sobbing he was trying to restrain. Grima simply hugged him back tightly and pressed his cheek against his head, humming softly a lullaby from when he was a baby, trying his best to comfort him. It was easy to explain his anxious state if Chrom himself had been unable to completely mantain his composure, or to keep it enough to fool him, at least.

Marth seemed to calm down, and slowly steped away from him. Grima let him go, still carefully watching his reaction. Marth took his mask off and cleaned a few tears.

"Thank you." He mumbled.

"That's what I'm here for." He assured him.

_You're here to destroy destroy destroy destroy destroy._ Grima mentaly slapped the inner voice. 

Marth seemed to have recovered. He breathed deeply and put his mask again. "Father asked me to inform him if something changed. Will you wait here until we're back?"

Grima had thought to go look for him himself, but nodded. It was easier than roaming around the castle.

* * *

Chrom's reaction when he saw him up and well was exactly the same as Marth's in Grima's opinion, just with less tears and more physical contact. The Fell Dragon really wished he stopped trying to hold hands for "emotional support against the colonies" or whatever the Exalt had called it. It was embarassing.

The three of them went to the canteen sooner than usual. most heroes were there already, and Grima noticed the fast glances they gave him when they entered. He ignored them, half listening at the advise Chrom was giving Marth on their fighting style while they sat at their usual place. The other Grima entered at some point, and after shooting him a glare, she sat at the other side of the Aksrian table and didn't even look at his direction again. Grima stared at her a few seconds, thinking, and then went back to Chrom and Marth's talk. As he had been told, it didn't look like she had been causing trouble, but she was clearly bothered by something.

In the middle of the lunch, the Morgans got up from their table with the Shepherds, apparently having finished eating very fast, and approached the Askrian table. Alfonse and Sharena greeted them, slightly surprised, but they ignored them and stood directly in front of Grima with a frown on their faces.

"Dad." One of them said, with a tone that made clear he knew he wasn't mistaken. "We have an important question."

Grima raised an eyebrow while Chrom and Marth looked at each other in confusion. The canteen seemed to have fallen in silence.

"Yes?"

"Why did you hide behind that Grima thing?!" The girl didn't bother to hide how irritated she was. Their father (another of them, anyway) had been with them the whole time. But instead of admiting it, he had pretended to be a monster!

Grima stared at them, any attempt of smile he could had thought of dead before it happened. He slowly left the fork on the plate and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "Have you even bothered to think what all of this means to me?"

He appeared calm, but his words had a hint of rage behind them. The Morgans became slightly unsureat his unexpected reaction.

"It means" He started, clenching his fists "that very person I ever cared about and yet I actually murdered is randomly alive again. Alive, friendly, and very much pretending not something terrible at the end of the road is going to happen." He made a pause, breathing though his nose in an attempt to remaing calm. "So, sorry, but this hasn't been exactly easy for me."

They looked at him in surprise, then they bit their lips and looked away, uncomfortable.

"Sorry… we didn't…"

"We just…"

Neither of them finished talking. Grima sighted and stood up. "Just try to be more mindful, alright? I… need a bit of time." He opened his arms. "Now come here and hug your-father-but-not-really-but-who-cares-at-this-point."

The Morgans doubted for a few seconds, but since it truly did that Grima didn't mind, they accepted and hugged him at the same time. "Can we keep calling you dad?" The male one asked timidly. "Or Robin?"

"Dad, yes. Robin, not in public." Grima established.

"Why not?" Chrom asked, frowning at him.

Grima rolled his eyes. "Things are confusing enough with two Robins who happen to be even clonical. Do you really want to have three of them? Or even _four_?"

Chrom's eyes wided at the realization, and his whole family sighted. "Point taken."

At that moment, the other Grima started to pour purple smoke in huge cuantities. She slammed her fork agains the table, got up, started levitating and threw herself flying thow the nearest window as fast as possible, earning several gasps from the startled heroes.

Grima just frowned. "She can fly? Lucky bitch…" He grumbled, actually jealous of that.

"What happened? Where is she going?" Alphonse asked him, startled by the sudden reaction.

Grima stopped hugging his startled children and made a dismisive gesture. "Probably went to cry somewhere. I wouldn't worry too much about her. Just don't press her."

"Oh…" He liked knowing she wasn't going to destroy half of the castle, but the answer didn't make him very happy either.

* * *

As the Fell Dragon discovered later, Alphonse hadn't been the only worried one. Chrom had been making circles on his stomach for fifteen minutes with a frown on his face, clearly bothered by something. Robin didn't complain because it was nice, and didn't tickle either. Chrom finally let the hand rest against his stomach and sighted.

"Can we do something to help her?" He asked.

Grima pressed his lips when he heard that.

"And don't give me the 'she doesn't deserve help' line." Chrom continued. "I know you'd consider it some kind of twisted self punishment."

"I wasn't going to say that." Robin complained, but didn't deny what the Exalt had said. He was silent for a few seconds. "I can't think of anything other than what you did." He admited.

"What I did?"

"Confront her in private while making her spill what she's feeling; and also emphasize you're willing to forgive her for what she's done."

Chrom was silent for a few seconds, and then moved one of his hands to softly stroke his hair. Robin pressed his lips, suddenly conscious of how much he had let known, but didn't rectract his words.

"Would you… mind if I tried?" Chrom shyly asked, blushing softly.

"I wouldn't bat an eye if you decided to fuck every single hero here one after the other. Don't worry about that."

Chrom's face discovered it could turn a new color in less than two seconds. "Why are you like this now?!"

"Becoming Grima meant my brain to mouth filther was destroyed."

"...Does that mean the other Robins do have these kind of thoughts?"

"Of course. They're just careful with what they say and how. I simply don't care."

Chrom was silent, trying to process the information. Robin rolled his eyes. "Back to the topic, even if it's nice if you to offer yourself, I don't think you're the best option."

That actually caught the Exalt's attention. "Why not?"

Robin closed his eyes and sighted. "Pressing her is not without risk. The safest thing we can do is send someone she cares so much she won't want to hurt them under any circumstance. Otherwise, this could explode the wrong way. Her spouse is our best option, but given I noticed an extraordinary lack of interest in you from her today, I hightly doubt she married you in her realm."

Chrom hummed, thinking. "So we just have to find that person and convince them to talk with her?"

"If they fulfill the previous requisites, yes." He reminded him.

In short, acknowledging her grief and sorrow while giving her a chance for relief. Chrom frowned. That wasn't something easy to do, specially since she had killed them. As much as his younger self sometimes irritated him, he admited he didn't know if he would have been able to confront and accept Robin if he hadn't defeated Grima in his world, with the journey and growth it entitled. He doubted any Shepherd there that hadn't been summoned from a later point in time would be emotionally appropiate.

"I see… Will you still tell me if you discover who is it? Perhaps if I talk to them…" He didn't sound too sure, but at least he wanted to try.

"Sure..." Robin agreed, not too enthusiastic either.

Chrom looked at him in the darkness of the room and then rested on his forearms to bend over Robin's face. He kissed his lips slowly.

"Can I make love to you?"

Robin seemed surprised by the question. He nervously looked away a few seconds and then at his chin, trying to avoid his eyes.

"I… sure, I guess."

Chrom kissed him again with a soft smile. Robin accepted the embrace and let himself be kissed.

* * *

Discovering who the other Grima had married wasn't difficult. Since she had been basically comatose since the awakening of her cursed blood, her control over the colonies was feeble, and she could do little more than keeping them in line so they wouldn't control her again. But Grima had decided to remain conscious as form of punishement, sinking in grief. And that meant he had a lot of time to experiment with what he could do. Controlling her colonies was extremelly basic and easy given the little to no resistance she was able to muster. Far more interesting, he discovered he could replicate her emotions within himself if they were basic yet strong. And that she always felt a specific and strong emotional pain whenever she glanced at a particular Shepherd.

Chrom's eyes widened when he was informed. Grima shrugged, not really surprised. "I mean, he is hot and not a bad person at all. I find it far more belivable than, I don't know, Vaike or Panne."

"I thought you said you found everyone hot?" Chrom raised an eyebrow.

"And I do, but I still have preferences." Grima stared at Chrom. "And don't even _try_ to tell me you don't find Frederick hot. I know you better that you'd like to."

Chrom sighted, blushing softly. "Alright, I'll talk to him. But given how strict he is with certain things, I don't know if I'll manage to convince him."

Grima hummed. The knight had been the only Shepherd to not reject or act ashamed or uncomfortable around the Exalt once his relationship with Grima was known. "I think you have a good chance. He likes you more than the other Chrom."

Chrom looked at Grima with curiosity, but the former tactician didn't elaborate.

* * *

In the end, Chrom knew he had little choice but to do it if he wanted to help Grima, so he braced himself for an extremely awkward conversation and asked Frederick to talk in private. He insisted that the sex part was optional (if likely to happen due to the influence of the colonies and how they were calmer if the hosts ate, slept or had sex). Frederick stood in silence for several seconds after hearing everything Chrom told him.

"Very well." He accepted.

"Wait, really?" The Exalt couldn't believe how easy it had been to convince him.

"Robin is a valuable Shepherd and a close friend to all of us. I'll be glad to help her however I can."

Chrom stared at him, realizing something. That answer was just too perfect. "You already defeated Grima in your world, didn't you?"

Frederick nodded, but he looked slightly distraught when Chrom mentioned that. The Exalt noticed. and an image that still gave him nightmares instantly appeared in his mind. "Robin made the sacrifice, didn't they?"

Frederick nodded, rigidly. "Naga promised us they'd return if the bonds were strong enough, but that hasn't happened yet."

"It happened in my realm. Just mantain your faith strong, friend." Chrom gave him a compasionate smile.

"Your words do bring me comfort, milord." Frederick exaled, slightly more relaxed.

"You do like Robin. Did you marry them?" Chrom realized.

The knight blushed, but shook his head. "I… ah… do harbor affetionate feelings for the Robin of my realm but… someone asked first and married them instead."

"Oh… I'm sorry, Frederick."

"Do not be, milord. They are happy, and that's what I care most. I only hope they will be able to return."

Chrom nodded and patted his shoulder. Then he remembered something else Grima had said.

"You don't have to answer, but is it true you like me more than the other Chrom?"

"Milord, you come from a point in time bery similar to my own. You've grown to become a great leader and a great father, and you defended your people when threat arised, but without taking unncesary risks. I could not ask for a better lord that the one you are right now."

Frederick didn't say a single bad word about the younger Chrom, but the Exalt understood it all the same. He gave him a boisterous laugh.

"I was a real impulsive brat, wasn't I?"

* * *

When the Robins entered to canteen a little after dawn, the last thing they expected to find was everyone from the Arkalentia wing spread out and asleep on the floor everywhere, and  Grima awake and playing cards in one of the tables. The tacticians stared at each other and slowly approached Grima. The Fell Dragon silently nodded at them as a greet, still looking at the cards on his hands. He had taken out his gloves, and it was the first time the Robins coud see the purple brand on his hand. For whatever reason, it had purple flames coming out of it. The Robins stared at him and at all the people laying on the floor.

"Uh…" They started.

"Frederick and Grima have been fucking the whole night, so we who live at the same castle wing as her room decided to flee here tonight for some peace." He answered the unasked question of the tacticians.

"WHAT?!" The female Robin yelled.

Grima hushed her, annoyed at the sudden high noise. "They're trying to sleep." He growled at her.

She put her hands on her mouth to stop herself from making more noise, but that didn't stop her face and ears from turning red. The other Robin patted her back, trying to support her, but she just became more embarassed.

"And… why aren't you wearing gloves…?" It wasn't a secret that the brand made the Robins quite uncomfortable.

"I can use my power to know what she's feeling and reflect it on the brand. That's how I know they're still fucking. It's _annoying._ " Right after he said that, the fire on the brand started shining for a few seconds and then lowered.

Grima groaned. "You could stop already." He muttered to his hand.

"What?" The male Robin stared at him. "But how long…?"

"Six. Hours."

"…Is Frederick still alive?"

"I wonder so myself." Grima admited. "Then again, it's _Frederick_."

The Robins accepted that as an argument in favor of the knight's wellbeing. But they stood in front of Grima, looking at the sleeping people a bit anwkardly. They had gone there so early to discuss a book tactic before breakfast, but their voices would probably disturb the sleeping heroes.

"Wanna play?" Grimma suddenly offered, picking up the cards on the table in front of him. "I've been doing solitaires the whole night and I'm bored out of my mind."

The Robins looked at each other and then sat in front of him. Grima started to distribute the cards.

It wasn't until several silent rounds later the tacticians gathered enough strengh to talk with him again.

"Can we ask you something?" The female Robin started.

"Shoot." Grima just said, examining his cards.

"Can you give us any advise to avoid…?" Her male counterpart didn't finish the question, but Grima knew what he meant.

The Fell Dragon took a couple of cards and threw them to the pile at the center. "Nope." He just said.

The Robins stared at him, incredulous. "Seriously? You haven't thought about it at all?"

"I used to think about it all the time. I simply have no idea what could I have done to stop myself from turnign into Grima. As far as I'm aware, it's simply impossible." He shrugged.

"But the Exalt Chrom comes from a world where it didn't happen!" The male Robin whispered in protest.

"He also has no way to prove his words." Grima replied.

"You think he's lying?" The female Robin nervously shuffled her cards.

"I don't know. I just don't believe him."

The Robins lowered their heads and bit their lips, frustrated. They always tried to pretend the perspective of turning into Grima didn't bothered them because they knew they would be able to overcome it, but the truth was the thought made them terribly anxious. Grima sighted.

"Look, sorry. I don't mean to blow your hopes or anything… I just don't have the answers you want or need. There's nothing I can really tell you you don't already know."

"It's fine." The female Robin assured him. "We just… had to try asking, you know? You could know something, after all…"

"Yeah, I understand."

They were quiet for a while, silently playing cards. The flames on Grima's hand finally stopped, and he had to stop playing for ten seconds to put his hands on his face and stop himseld from yelling. Peace, _finally_. He put his gloves on again.

The heroes started waking up and soon some servants brought breakfast while other heroes started coming to the place. The tacticians were already bored of playing cards, so the Robins retreated a few minutes to their rooms to get a couple of boxes. They went back to the dining room and showed them Grima. The Fell Dragon was unable to hide the great interest he felt for the game. 

"What if we make a huge map and the three of us play to see who's the best tactician? Everyone against everyone, no aliances allowed." The female Robin smled smugly at her male counterparts.

"You're on." Grima answered without even thinking, while the male Robin strongly nodded.

* * *

The last thing the Shepherds expected when they entered the canteen was to find a circle of strangely quiet people surrounding the three Robins. The Morgans quickly aproached them to check and informed them about the tactical game. Then they ran to watch it with the other heroes while they took their breakfast with themselves. The Shephereds decided to eat on their own table, but they soon realized Frederick was nowhere to bee seen, and started getting worried. It wasn't common of him to be late. And although at first they had thought he was probably sleeping on his room and agreed to not bother him so he could rest a little more, it wasn't normal for him to wake up several hours after dawn. Some Shepherds had gone to wake him up, only to discovered he wasn't in his room.

Chrom ended up getting up and aproaching the circle of people gathered around the Robins and got closer to the summoner.

"I don't want to interrupt…" He started.

"You already are!" One of the Robins protested with a groan.

Chrom pressed his lips, annoyed at the outburst. "Sorry, Grima." He replied with sarcasm.

"I'm Grima." A different Robin added.

Chrom blinked in surprise. Robin had never complained at him in such a way for a small mistake like that. He hadn't expected…

"What do you want, Chrom?" The girl Robin asked him, wanting him to leave as soon as possible.

The heroes gathered at the table stared at him, and Chrom grew conscious of how he had interrupted something very important for everyone there. He cleared his throat, thinking of the quickest way to make the question and leave.

"Does anyone know where Frederick is?"

It was as if he had said something forbidden, because most people around him suddenly looked away and coughed uncomfortable. The Robins were staring at their wooden troops and blushing intensely. Grima was the only one that kept staring at him with a bored look.

"Yeah." He just said.

Chrom looked around him and then at Grima. "Uh…"

"Don't worry, he'll reappear at lunch." He answered.

The other Chrom, who apparently was there with Marth too, nodded at him. He seemed slightly embarassed as well. The younger Chrom stared at them, puzzled, but it seemed like he wasn't going to get more answers. He thanked them for the information and left to sit with the rest of the Shepherds. The Robins resumed their game.

Several hours later, the three Robins advanced their game slowly, but steadily, none of them having a clear superiority over the rest. Several hours later, the doors to the canteen opened and Grima entered floating slowly with a huge grin on her face. She got next to her male counterpart and hanged of his neck, to his annoyance.

"Hey! What are you doing here together? Is this a tactic game?" She realized. "Why didn't you invite me!?"

"You were too busy fucking Frederick to death." Grima replied, ignoring how the few people left at the Shepherds table had suddenly chocked.

"He's _not_ dead!" She replied, greatly offended by the suggestion.

"Incredible."

She frowned at him and then looked at the gameboard. "Can I play too?"

"No." The three Robins replied simultaneously, with a frighteningly serious tone.

"Why not?!" She protested.

"We started three hours ago!" The male Robin protested. "We're not restarting to add you!"

The other two nodded in agreement. Grima pouted, but let go of her male counterpart's neck and sat next to him to watch. "Fine. Whatever."

The game continued once more. In the crowd, the summoner kept watching, trying to learn from the three tacticians. But after so many hours Kiran was getting tired and their focus wasn't at their best anymore. Still, they kept sat where they were the whole match. They watched the Robins play with a friendly rivalry. They watched Chrom staring at them with an easy smile. They saw Marth and the Morgans silently cheering up for their parents without nearly as the emotional suffering they had seen in the past.

And the summoner thought that, perhaps, things in that huge and dysfunctional family would be better from then on while they stayed on Askr.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another chapter. The next one will be the last, and since it will be quite short, I'll probably upload it this weekend! 
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading and for all the comments you sent! I really appreciate them!


	8. Epilogue

Marth and Grima returned to their world the same day.

When Marth arrived, he searched for survivors in the destroyed capital, and miraculously found his sister, hurt and scared, but alive. Morgan hugged him and cried for hours. Marth did his best to comfort her, and later on, search for others and rebuild the world they had lost to the grief of a single person.

When Grima arrived, the risen disappeared.

It was said the Fell Dragon's vessel had been seen at the ruins of the temple of His resurrection. It was said not long after that, a small stone monument had appeared at Mount Prism that simply read "To the Shepherds and their Commander". It was said Grima entered a deep cave in a remote island and fell into a slumber no one could wake him up from.

Nor father nor child ever saw each other again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this ending… I feel like I should explain why I did this when everything was fine in the last chapter. The short answer is: they were in Askr, now they're not. 
> 
> Askr is a pause. You fight your war, get summoned, live in the other world for a while and then come back. To me, when you come back, no time has passed (or very little time), so things stay the same as they were before you get summoned. Essentially, Grima and Marth went back to a world that was at the brink of destruction, and in which most people were dead, including the Shepherds and Chrom. 
> 
> But while the worlds stayed the same, Grima and Marth didn't. They both learned to accept their losses and, in Marth's case, find the strengh to rebuild his world; and in Grima's case, to let it go and stop punishing a world for something a few had done to him. He can no longer go back to what he was before he got transformed, so the best thing he can think of doing is just… leave, and let the world revive without him interfering. (I actually had more concrete ideas to what could happen to Grima, but none of them convinced me too much, so I left the ending open.)
> 
> The last thing: the title! No one commented on it, so I don't know if you noticed, but I chose it because harebells are a symbol of grief! Grima's and Marth's grief, in this case. 
> 
> And that's all. I can't believe the notes are actually longer than the chapter itself, but maybe it makes up for how little I talked the other chapters? Oh, well. Again, thank you everyone so much for your coments, likes, kudos, views! This is my most succesful story so far and I couldn't have done it without all of you! I'm really, really glad you liked this story!


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